Political system of Japan

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Scheme of the constitutional organs based on the 1947 constitution

The current political system in Japan was formally enshrined in the constitution of November 3, 1946 after World War II during the occupation . According to this, Japan is a centrally organized parliamentary monarchy ; the Tennō symbolized as Monarch, the unity of the people and in all state affairs to the approval of the Cabinet, the elected government, dependent. The cabinet forms the executive branch under the leadership of the Prime Minister . The legislative power is exercised by a bicameral parliament, consisting of the lower house ( Shūgiin ) and upper house ( Sangiin ). At the head of the judiciary is the Supreme Court .

Constitution

The current Japanese constitution was promulgated on November 3, 1946 and came into force on May 3, 1947. In it, the Japanese people commit themselves to the ideals of peace and democratic order . It is also known as the “Peace Constitution” because it was developed under the strong influence of the USA and its sense of justice (this is where women's suffrage and the relatively low influence of trade unions derive from; “Japanese elements”, such as a pronounced social-family structure Commitment or group loyalty, however, is missing).

The emperor , in Japan Tennō ( 天皇 , tennō , "emperor of heaven" or sumera-mikōtō "heavenly ruler") is emphasized as a symbol of the state and the unity of the people. He is prohibited from interfering with government powers; thus he has no political power and sovereign power rests solely with the people.

Article Nine of the constitution rejects war as a sovereign right, and the threat of military force as a means of resolving international conflicts is prohibited. The inviolability of human rights is also emphasized.

Central government

Tennō (emperor)

"Symbol of the state and the unity of the Japanese people" is Naruhito , the 126th Tennō . Legally, he is not considered head of state , and sovereign power rests solely with the people. Naruhito's grandfather, the Shōwa emperor , had denied the divinity of the Japanese emperors when Japan surrendered in 1945 . The 1946 constitution does not give the emperor any direct political decision-making power; his office is of a ceremonial nature. He appoints the Prime Minister elected by both Houses of Parliament and the President of the Supreme Court , promulgates the laws and convenes Parliament. He is also the chief priest of Shinto .

Naruhito's government motto is reiwa . The government motto is also used to indicate the year in official Japanese texts, starting with the year of accession to the throne. Reiwa 1 is the year 2019.

Judiciary and legal system

According to the constitution, the judiciary is independent of the other two branches. At the top is the Supreme Court ( saikō-saibansho ). It consists of a Supreme Judge, who is appointed by the Tennō on the proposal of the Cabinet, and 14 Supreme Judges, who are appointed by the Cabinet for a period of 10 years and periodically legitimized by referendum. Your office is renewable. Its primary task is to review laws and ordinances for constitutionality; only in exceptional cases do they intervene directly in government affairs.

The Supreme Court has the right to review judgments of the lower courts and make final judgments. His decisions are the only ones that have a direct influence on the later interpretation of the laws. In Japan there is a simple system of courts, so there are no separate administrative or labor courts as in Germany. The courts are divided below the Supreme Court into eight upper ( kōtō- ), 50 district ( chihō- ) and over 400 simple courts ( kan'i-saibansho ), in addition there are 50 family courts ( katei-saibansho ).

The Japanese legal system, which was originally based on Chinese principles, was modernized in the 19th century based on European models. It was then essentially restored to its present form during the US-led occupation following the Pacific War. The Ministry of Justice was temporarily dissolved, the independence of the public prosecutor's office ( Kensatsu-chō ), which, like the courts , is regionally divided into saikō-, kōtō-, chihō- and ku-kensatsu-chō , and the police through the creation of the independent police authority and by the National Public Security Commission .

executive

The executive branch of the Japanese central state, also called central government ( 中央政府 , chūō seifu ), consists of the Japanese cabinet under the leadership of the prime minister and the subordinate ministries and assigned authorities. Shinzō Abe has held the post of Prime Minister since December 2012 .

The cabinet is responsible to parliament. The chief executive, the prime minister, is elected by the upper and lower houses and then appointed by the tennō. In the event of a conflict, the vote of the House of Commons applies. Only members of the Upper or Lower House can be elected Prime Minister. The prime minister appoints (and dismisses) the ministers of his cabinet, the majority of whom must also be members of the upper or lower house. After the experience of Japanese militarism, the constitution also states that the prime minister and all his ministers must be civilians.

Further rules are not laid down in the constitution, but they are in line with political tradition. In the LDP, for example, the seniority principle applied , ministerial posts are not only awarded according to competence, but also serve to reward long-serving members of parliament. The heads of the factions behind the scenes regulate the allocation. Factions are groups of MPs centered on a veteran and influential MP. The factions support their members with the funds they urgently need for the election campaign , in return the leader of the faction can rely on the votes of his faction in votes in parliament and within the LDP faction.

The post of prime minister traditionally occupies the head of the strongest party in the lower house. Since this was the LDP for decades, since 1955 the election of the LDP chairman has de facto decided on the successor; individual interruptions were the years 1993 to 1996 and 2009 to 2012, when the LDP did not provide the head of government.

legislative branch

Lower House of the Japanese Parliament

The Japanese Parliament ( Kokkai ) is the highest body of state power and the only legislative body in Japan. The national parliament building is in Nagatacho , Chiyoda , Tokyo prefecture .

The Japanese parliament consists of an upper house ( Sangiin ) and a lower house ( Shūgiin ).

The division into upper and lower houses was created in the Meiji period based on the British model. According to the Meiji constitution of 1889, the upper house was set up as a mansion ( Kizokuin ) and only members of the nobility ( Kazoku ) were allowed to belong to it. Parliament first met on November 29, 1890. In the 1947 Constitution, the manor was abolished and replaced by the elected Sangiin.

In the 1947 constitution, the lower house is superordinate to the upper house. Laws can be introduced by both chambers and must pass both chambers, but the lower house has more power on crucial points:

  • If a different prime minister is elected in both chambers, the candidate of the lower house wins.
  • International treaties are ratified in the House of Commons.
  • Bills that are passed in the lower house but rejected in the upper house can be enforced by the lower house with a two-thirds majority . This first occurred in Japanese post-war history in 1951 with a law governing motorboat racing. In the second Nejire Kokkai , a "twisted parliament" with different majorities in both chambers, several laws were passed in this way from 2008 onwards.

Suffrage and electoral system

Main article: Elections in Japan

The Japanese Constitution does not give details about the size of the Houses of Parliament, the electoral system, the qualifications required to vote and stand for election, so these things are regulated by law. The electoral system was changed several times in the post-war period. In the constitution, on the other hand, universal suffrage and secret voting are enshrined . In addition, it is stipulated that the right to vote must not make any distinctions based on “descent, belief, gender, social status, family origin, education, property and income”.

The most common electoral system used in post-war Japan is the non-transferable individual vote . It is still used today in the election of constituency MPs in the upper house as well as all prefecture and local parliaments. The lower house has been elected since 1996 in a trench system of simple majority and proportional representation for regional party lists. The national constituency in the upper house, in which 100 members were also elected by simple non-transferable votes until 1980, was replaced in 1983 by a national proportional representation; Since 2001 it has been possible to influence the list candidates with an additional preference vote .

All Japanese men and women over the age of 20 are entitled to vote . Passive suffrage for the House of Representatives is granted to all men and women who have reached the age of 25; to be eligible to vote in the House of Lords, they must be 30 years of age.

Prefectures and parishes

Japan is a centralized state , which only assigns clearly defined tasks to the 47 prefectures for implementation. Within these tasks, the prefectures are relatively autonomous and exercise local self-administration. However, they are heavily dependent on funding from the central government .

The 47 prefectures are divided into large cities as well as small towns and villages and - in Tokyo prefecture - the districts of Tokyo , the municipal level. The prefectures are very different in size and population density. Most of them are on the main island of Honshū , while the second largest island, Hokkaidō , for example, has only one prefecture.

Chapter 8 of the 1947 constitution guarantees the local authorities local self-government . The "Law on Local Self-Government" ( chihō-jichi-hō ) regulates further details . In prefectures and municipalities, in contrast to central government, a presidential system is practiced: governors and mayors are elected directly. The prefectural parliaments, city and local councils are unicameral parliaments.

Since prefectural and local taxes are usually not enough to finance budgets, local authorities are heavily reliant on central government allocations through the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications , formerly the Ministry of Self-Government . As a result, the government in Tokyo has de facto opportunities to intervene politically in decisions made by local administrations.

The parties and their history

In the post-war period Japan had a pluralistic multi-party system with one dominant party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). There are also a few, continuously existing opposition parties, namely the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Communist Party of Japan (KPJ) and the Kōmeitō , the political arm of the Buddhist organization Sōka Gakkai .

During the deflationary crisis of the 1990s, the LDP's monopoly of power came into serious danger for the first time, and it lost its participation in the government for a year. From 1996 to 2009, the LDP provided the Prime Minister again and ruled in a coalition with the Kōmeitō. The Democratic Party (DPJ), which emerged as the strongest opposition party from the large number of party foundations, reshuffles and dissolutions, was able to outperform the LDP in the upper house elections in 2007 for the first time and in the lower house elections in 2009 it achieved the largest majority of any single party in post-war history. In the following general election in 2012 , however, she lost an immense number of votes and was replaced in government responsibility by the LDP-Kōmeitō alliance. The DPJ merged in 2016 with the Ishin no Tō to form the Democratic Progressive Party (DFP). Shortly before the 2017 general election , a large majority of DFP MPs joined the Party of Hope and the Constitutional Democratic Party ; In May 2018 the DFP merged with the Party of Hope to form the Democratic People's Party .

The composition of the politically more significant House of Commons after the 2017 election

The parties currently represented in parliament are (as of November 2019):

Extra-parliamentary groups are:

  • Right-wing extremist organizations ( 右翼 , uyoku ), splinter groups that have not yet been represented in parliament
    • Japanese Patriotic Party, ( 日本 愛国 党 , nihonaikokuto ), ex-chairman Satoshi Akao ( 赤 尾 敏 )
    • The " Wednesday Club " ( 一 水 会 , issuikai ; named after the group's jour fixe , the first Wednesday of each month. Often mistakenly translated as "Ein-Wasser-Bund", "Wassertropfengesellschaft", etc.)
  • Radical left parties ( 左翼 , sayoku )
    • 中 核 派 , chūkakuha , dt. Core party
    • 東 ア ジ ア 反 日 武装 戦 線 , Higashi Ajia Hannichi Busō Sensen , German armed anti-Japanese front in East Asia

Political agenda

Domestic politics

DPJ governments

The Hatoyama cabinet, which ruled from 2009 to 2010 and led by the Democratic Party, had proclaimed two central goals that were intended to signal a change of course compared to the previous LDP-led governments:

  • Under the motto “From concrete to people” ( コ ン ク リ ー ト か ら 人 へ , konkurīto kara hito e ), major infrastructure projects should be abandoned in favor of higher social spending and the promotion of small and medium-sized companies.
  • Under the motto “From the officials to the people” ( 官僚 か ら 国民 へ , kanryō kara kokumin e ), the traditionally great influence of the ministerial bureaucracy on political decisions should be pushed back and transferred to the elected politicians.

At the same time, it had to overcome deflation , which was rampant again in the wake of the global financial crisis , and was faced with high national debt. The aging population in Japan still requires adjustments to social security systems and labor law.

The 2010 and 2011 reigning successor Cabinet of Naoto Kan , previously vice premier under Hatoyama, followed up on it, but had given up more costly election promises and additionally proclaimed fiscal consolidation as a central goal.

The Noda cabinet under Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda , which ruled from 2011 to 2012, focused on the consequences of the Tōhoku earthquake in 2011 and continued the nuclear phase-out initiated by the previous government . Other priorities for Noda included Japan's entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership and a doubling of the VAT rate from 5% to 10%.

The problem of donation scandals and corruption, which has been intensely discussed in public since the 1990s, in Japan simply referred to as seiji-to-kane-mondai , "the problem of money and politics", was not fundamentally resolved by reforms in party financing and was also affected the Kan government. Ex-Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and the “shadow shogun” of the Democratic Party, Ex-Secretary General Ichirō Ozawa , were themselves affected by donation scandals.

Abe government since 2012

Shinzō Abe, who was Prime Minister from 2006 to 2007, was re-elected Prime Minister by Parliament on December 26, 2012 after a successful lower house election for the LDP. Under his leadership, the LDP had campaigned for an effective fight against the deflation, which had been going on for two decades, as well as an amendment to Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution , under the motto Nippon o, torimodosu ( 日本 を 、 取 り 戻 す。 , for example "bring back Japan") .

The term Abenomics is used to describe the government's attempt to break through Japan's economic crisis with the aid of the three pillars “ money glut ”, “ stimulus programs ” and “far-reaching deregulations ” . As a result, the nominal gross domestic product has risen unusually strongly compared to the previous period since the bursting of the bubble economy , but the actual goal of combating deflation has not yet been achieved. Critics see Abenomics as a failure, while others do not necessarily see the low inflation rate as a major problem. Along with his economic program, Abe has promised "free childcare and education", especially since the 2017 general election , which is to be achieved through the increase in VAT from 8% to 10% planned for 2019.

Another focus is security and defense policy. In 2015, parliament passed the controversial Collective Self-Defense Act , which expanded the powers of the Japanese armed forces to the extent that they no longer focused solely on defending Japan as part of a collective defense system under the Treaty on Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States are limited. Abe is also planning to amend Article 9 of the Constitution, which will address the persistent question of whether or not the Self-Defense Forces are unconstitutional. It first emerged in concrete terms when parliament approved the sending of Japanese soldiers to a foreign country for the first time since 1945, in this case to Iraq . While the then Prime Minister Jun'ichirō Koizumi saw it as proof of the close friendly relations with the USA, many Japanese saw it as a breach of the constitution.

With the award of the 2020 Summer Olympics to Tokyo, the Abe government and the Tokyo Prefectural Administration are also involved in the preparations for them, which is why in June 2015 the cabinet post of "Olympic Minister" was established.

Foreign policy

The main points of Japan's foreign policy after World War II are a solid bond with the United States , checkbook diplomacy, and a constitutional renunciation of military aggression and territorial disputes.

The southern Kuril Islands , north of Japan, have belonged to the Soviet Union since 1945 (the successor state Russia from 1990 ), but are claimed by Japan. This conflict is an ongoing problem in Japanese-Russian relations. Even after the end of World War II, the Soviet Union and Japan did not formally conclude a peace treaty. The small archipelago Takeshima ( Kor. Dokdo) is administered by South Korea and claimed by Japan after having belonged to Japan for about 40 years during the time of Japanese imperialism. In the spring of 2005, the introduction of a Takeshima day in a Japanese prefecture again aroused anger among the South Korean population. In addition to the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China , Japan has ownership claims to the Senkaku Islands ( Chinese : Diaoyu). Raw materials are believed to be in the vicinity of the islands.

Relations with many Asian countries - especially North Korea , South Korea and the People's Republic of China - are still tense, mainly because of a failure to come to terms with history. The close economic ties and the global interest in peace in the region make armed conflicts with South Korea and China unlikely; instead, political crises flare up again and again. The situation is different with North Korea, which is causing increasing unrest over the security of Japan, especially with the development of its nuclear weapons program .

Form and values ​​of Japanese democracy

Characteristics of Japanese democracy are the great influence of the ministerial bureaucracy on legislation and political decisions, a high degree of personalization, which also favors the factionalization of the parties, and the close interweaving of politics and business, which has been favored by the decades of sole government of the Liberal Democratic Party contributed to numerous corruption scandals.

Nevertheless, although Japan is a parliamentary-democratically governed, capitalist-oriented industrial society, it differs considerably in the causes for it and its development, its special characteristics and the underlying social values ​​from the USA and Europe with their ideas based on the Enlightenment . The similarities between Japan as an Eastern society and the West consist more in a formally similar government structure and a related economic order.

However, the works of the European Enlightenment and other, more recent European political currents such as socialism found dissemination among the economic and intellectual elites of Japanese society as early as the 19th century, where they were intensely discussed and thus also influenced the demands of the jiyū minken undō (movement for Freedom and people's rights) according to elected representative bodies and a constitution.

Sovereign / ruler over the course of Japanese history

  1. From Asuka to the Heian period ( 552 - 1185 ): The sovereignty of the Tennō dynasty
  2. Kamakura period ( 1185 - 1333 ): The sovereignty of the Minamoto and Hojo dynasty
  3. Kemmu Restoration ( 1333 - 1336 ): The sovereignty of the Tennō dynasty ( Godaigo -Tenno)
  4. Ashikaga Period ( 1336 - 1573 ): The sovereignty of the Ashikaga dynasty
  5. Warlord Period ( 1467 - 1603 ): The sovereignty of the feudal warlords ( daimyo )
  6. Tokugawa period ( 1603 - 1868 ): The sovereignty of the Tokugawa dynasty
  7. Empire ( 1868 - 1945 ): The sovereignty of the Tennō dynasty
  8. Democracy time (since 1945 ): popular sovereignty

See also

literature

  • Axel Klein : The Japanese political system . Bier'sche Publishing House. Bonn 2006 ( corrections ; PDF; 263 kB).
  • Axel Klein: Japan . Political Systems Analysis Series. Wochenschau Verlag, Schwalbach / Ts 2011. ISBN 978-3-89974-638-9
  • Claudia Derichs: Japan: Political System and Political Change . In: Claudia Derichs, Thomas Heberer (ed.): The political systems of East Asia: an introduction . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2013 (3rd edition), pp. 255–354. ISBN 978-3-658-01987-7 .
  • Alisa Gaunder (Ed.): The Routledge Handbook of Japanese Politics . Routledge, New York / Abingdon 2011. ISBN 978-0-415-55137-3
  • Takashi Inoguchi: Japanese Politics. An Introduction . Trans Pacific Press, Melbourne 2005.
  • Christopher Hood: The Politics of Modern Japan (4 volumes). Routledge, London / New York 2008.
  • James AA Stockwin: Governing Japan . Blackwell Publishing, Malden 2009 (4th edition), ISBN 978-1-4051-5415-4 .
  • James AA Stockwin: Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Japan . Routledge, London / New York 2003.
  • Janet Hunter (Ed.): Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History , Berkeley 1984, ISBN 0-520-04557-2 .
  • Carmen Schmidt: Small commented dictionary on politics in Japan . Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2003, ISBN 978-3-8288-8580-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. Japan is on the right track. In: Commerzbank . January 25, 2018, accessed February 1, 2018 .
  2. ^ Japan Moves to Allow Military Combat for First Time in 70 Years. In: The New York Times . July 17, 2015, accessed February 1, 2018 .
  3. ^ Abe's Cabinet approves more muscular SDF peacekeeping role. In: The Japan Times . November 15, 2016, accessed February 1, 2018 .
  4. Jürgen Hartmann : Politics and Society in Japan, USA, Western Europe, An introductory comparison , Campus Studium Volume 554, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt a. M., 1983, p. 50 u. 51
  5. ^ Marius B. Jansen, John Whitney Hall (Ed.): The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. 5: The nineteenth century, Cambridge 1989, ISBN 0-521-65728-8 .

Web links

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