Addressing Japan's future challenges: A proposal for a comprehensive strategy

This report is the product of a June 1994 independent research project that focused on addressing reform and other challenges facing Japan, and on charting a comprehensive course for the future. Referring to the many uncertainties of the post‐Cold War world, the project members emphasize the urgent need for wide‐ranging political, economic, administrative, and social reform. Though not without cost, enacting such measures will “contribute to Japan's ability to concentrate on both domestic problems and the many complex issues facing the world today.” Chairman of the project was Yasuhiro Nakasone. Other members are listed below.     

日本女子高等教育机构的最新动态——基于五所女子高校的微观考察

日本的女子高等教育机构,是探讨日本高等教育机构的文化特征之际不可或缺的重要环节。步入21世纪以来,日本女子高等教育呈现出新的发展趋势,即通过实现超越传统课程视域的学科设置、创设符合女性的"时代特质"的课程体系、整合满足社会需要的教学机构,既推动日本女子高等教育走上了一个新的台阶,同时也令自身的改革陷入到了一个可能迷失方向的困境之中。这一新的动态,对于研究日本女子高等教育的转型、探索未来中国教育改革之方向也具有深刻的启示意义。     

Reshaping of Japanese Politics and the Question of Democracy

Japan's need for economic and political reform has been recognized but the means to achieve this has not. In this article, J.A.A. Stockwin, professor of Modern Japanese Studies at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, University of Oxford, considers this question by examining the meaning of democracy then applying the theory to the specific case of Japan. He explains that although not identical to a democracy in a Western sense, Japan's system of government is genuinely democratic. Stockwin argues that Japan is now at a crossroads in her history, but before pressing for reform an understanding of the complexity of the Japanese system is necessary. He concludes that a radical restructuring of Japan's political party system towards a bipolar set of party arrangements is necessary but questions whether Prime Minister Junichirô Koizumi is up to the task.     

Japan’s Shifting Military Priorities: Counterbalancing China’s Rise

This article analyzes the most recent phase of Japan’s security policy reform, focusing on its shifting priorities towards the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the Japan–US alliance since mid-2010. From a realist perspective, it argues that these shifting military priorities first and foremost represent a traditional counterbalancing response to China’s rise. Conforming to the logic inherent in balance of threat theory, it moreover argues that this balancing behavior is explained by a confluence of two primary factors, namely Japanese perceptions of aggressive Chinese behavior in the maritime domain and concerns relating to the changing distribution of capabilities in China’s favor.     

制度选择框架下日本风险投资组织行为新解——读平力群的新作《日本风险投资研究》

"日本型风险投资"滋生于日本多元化官僚经济体制的独特土壤,有别于美国独立型风险投资机构。平力群的《日本风险投资研究》新作是制度选择框架下探究日本风险投资组织行为的最新解,该书构建的"制度选择——组织行为——创新绩效"分析框架凸显了理论创新,建立美国风险投资典型化制度安排参照系体现了研究视角创新,提出了3个创新性观点:一是日本风险投资是其无法完成破坏性创新的症结;二是认识到制度多元化的重要意义;三是日本风险投资模式正处于新旧交易模式并存阶段。对于日本风险投资研究还应着眼于新会计制度改革新背景、客观评价VC宪章、实证检验绩效、开展案例研究等。     

Terror in Japan

Observers of early twenty-first-century Japan commonly note economic, political, and social crisis, on the one hand, and pessimism, lethargy, or helplessness about the possibility of reform, on the other. Yet Japan's civil society was idealistic and energetic in the early postwar decades. What happened? The reform movement that captured much of the vitality of the early postwar decades was either foreclosed, as many were co-opted in the “all-for-growth” economism, consumerism, and the corporation, or crushed in successive waves of repression of dissidence as the cold war order took shape. Political parties sacrificed broad vision and ideals to narrow-interest articulation. While the mass base of the reform movement was discouraged, demoralized, and depoliticized, one minority in the late 1960s turned to violent revolution and another in the late 1980s turned inward to seek spiritual satisfaction. Both paths led to violence. This article looks at the course of the student movement between the late 1940s and the late 1970s, with particular reference to the Japan Red Army, and at the new religious movement Aum Supreme Truth in the 1980s and 1990s. Both adopted “terrorist” tactics, by almost any understanding of that term. However, they were children of their times, reflecting the same deep social, political, and moral problems that Japan as a whole continues to face in the early twenty-first century.     

Japan’s Contested Labour Market Reform

ABSTRACT

Over the past few decades, Japan’s labour market has faced substantial changes, represented by flexibility, an increase in the proportion of the non-regular workforce and rising inequality. Under the intense pressure of fluctuating business environments and protracted recession, Japan’s policy-makers have sought to resuscitate the troubled economy by further liberalising the relationship between capital and labour while also seeking to reduce widening inequality by providing social safety nets and protection for workers. This article examines the government’s labour market reforms since the late 2000s in response to these challenges. It argues that patterns of policy-making – centralised versus decentralised – have determined the political dynamics of labour market reform. More specifically, three aspects of decision-making – the role of the centralised policy-making agency, party-cabinet relations and legislative control in Diet – have explained the scope of the reform, although the reform target along the lines of employment status has affected the political process and outcome to some extent.     

Surviving Financial Crises: The Chinese Overseas in Malaysia and Singapore

This article analyses key elements of the Thaksin government's public sector reform program since 2001 in the context both of a longer history of public sector reform in Thailand, and of Thaksin's style of political rule. Carefully chosen instruments of new public management reform such as budgeting for results and performance management have been accompanied by an agenda of wholesale restructuring of the bureaucracy. However, these instruments do not include many familiar items of the public management reform agenda. The reforms are best viewed as part of a politicisation strategy aimed at asserting political control at the centre. Managerial reforms are being deployed to reshape the bureaucracy into an instrument of the Thaksin government's political program. In the process, the traditional power of the bureaucracy is being challenged and undermined. The long-term impact of the bureaucratic modernisation program on administrative performance is less certain.     

The Political Rationale of Administrative Reforms: Parliamentary Support of Output Control in Switzerland

Sufficient political support is a sine qua non of comprehensive administrative reforms. However, while the pros and cons of administrative reform measures have been extensively discussed in theory and research, only little is known about the political process which determines whether or not administrative reforms are implemented at all. Against this background, the article aims at throwing light on the politicians' backgrounds and mindsets which account for their attitude towards administrative reforms. Referring to the theories of voting behaviour, socio-structural, socio-psychological, and rational choice factors by Swiss members of parliament are tested for their impact on the attitude towards new output control policies as part of wider administrative reforms. Findings help us understand the different fates of administrative reforms in the legislative process, and they make it possible to draw some essential conclusions for the design and implementation of future administrative reforms. In consequence of this, the article's findings are a significant contribution for the study of the political rationale of administrative reforms as well as the characteristics of political rationale in general.     

Regime Shift in Japan?Two Decades of Neoliberal Reforms

This paper uses insights drawn from a paired comparison of Switzerland and Japan to give an account of the changes brought about by neoliberal policy adaptation in Japan over the last two decades. In Switzerland, notwithstanding further liberalization of the traditionally liberal regime prompted by the economic hardships of the 1990s, the referendum system helped the Social Democrats and unions to defend their rights and maintain the welfare schemes belatedly established in the 1980s. By contrast, the Japanese ruling party not only delayed liberalization of the protectionist state, but also aggravated fiscal problems by implementing a series of expansionary macroeconomic policies in the 1990s. Thus, without pursuing coherently such neoliberal policies as fiscal consolidation, privatization, or market deregulation, the Japanese state now faces a serious dilemma between the immediate need for structural reforms and the social unease that would result. Focusing on the reform packages of the Nakasone (1982‐87), Hashimoto (1996‐98), and Koizumi (2001‐) administrations, the paper reviews the sequences of reform policies as an interplay among economic challenges, actors’ aspirations, and institutional constraints, and further develops arguments about the segmented structure, peculiar to the Japanese state, that retards political changes.     

The Future of the Japanese–Chinese Relationship: The Case for a Grand Political Bargain

Compared with the strained relationship during the Koizumi era, Japanese-Chinese relations today seem to prove that despite many bilateral problems, a solution can always be found. This attitude is too complacent as a closer examination of the three main disputes shows: the history-related issues, the territorial disputes in the East China Sea, and Taiwan. Bilateral agreements, understandings, or protracted negotiations may provide temporary relief but may turn out to be very costly in the long run to Japan's national interests and to regional stability while time is not on Japan's side in view of the shifting comprehensive power relationship between the two countries. Instead, Japan should clarify its position in the Japan–US–China triangle, reform its economy, strengthen its Asian policy and sort out its priorities concerning the three main problems by striking a grand bargain.     

日本的社会教育研究

明治维新后,日本的社会教育研究历经二战前后的奠基阶段和重振阶段,呈现出不断发展的过程。本文分别从社会教育的概念、特征、意义、内容、政策法规、公民馆、社会教育史等方面来概览社会教育的研究主题。在此基础上,对未来日本社会教育的研究趋势进行展望,即立足终身学习开展社会教育研究、社会教育研究内容逐步突出功能性、社会教育的形式关注民间力量、社会教育政策研究注重与教育改革同步、社会教育研究范畴趋向独立等5方面。     

日本能源安全的体制保障对中国能源管理体制改革的启示

20世纪能源危机时期,日本制定了健全的能源安全保障体制和运行机制。同样,能源安全对我国的可持续发展及国家安全具有战略意义。通过对日本能源安全保障体制以及中国能源管理体制变革的追述和分析,试图为中国能源管理体制改革提供可行性的建议。     

我国行政体制改革的动因、进展与路径选择

当前国际环境日趋复杂,信息技术革命日新月异,社会主要矛盾发生深刻变化,新一轮开放高水平推进,这些新情况新变化对深化我国行政体制改革,推进政府治理现代化提出了更高要求。党的十八大以来,我国行政体制改革向纵深发展,突出政府职能转变的主线,稳步推进大部门体制,深入推进"放管服"改革,决策科学化、民主化和法治化进程加快。按照党的十九届四中全会《决定》的新部署,深化行政体制改革,推进政府治理现代化要在价值取向、组织结构、职责体系、运行过程、技术支持、法治保障等层面进行全方位系统性深入改革。     

日本教育改革如何达成共识

涉及群众利害的事业能否顺利完成，全凭众人是否能够达成共识。日本教育改革的呼声起于20世纪70年代初。20世纪80年代中曾根内阁作为国家任务去抓。设置临时教育审议会确定改革的基本方针。在首先确定议事规则、关键概念的含义后开展具体审议。临教审内部各个分会间，临教审与内阁高层、与社会各界通过各种会议以及征文、发行刊物等方式，收集和扩散各种意见和看法，通过3年审议提出4次报告，内阁以最终报告为基础确定了教育改革大纲。充分的讨论和争辩是达成共识的有效途径，寻求共识虽然费时但保证了决策慎重。在社会共识基础上的决策可以避免朝令夕改、最大限度减少决策失误造成的无可估量的损失。     

Deciphering Japanese politics

The fascinating political history of Japan in the 1990s seems to demonstrate with some clarity that the path to reform is strewn with obstacles, and those taking the path are smitten with palsy, says J.A.A. Stockwin, Nissan Professor of Modern Japanese Studies at the University of Oxford. Stockwin argues that it is much too early to say that genuine reform of the Japanese political system is under way. He outlines several explanations for this systemic conservatism, noting that interventionist government and communal values are longstanding aspects of the Japanese political culture. In the course of his analysis, Stockwin provides a survey of recent and not‐so‐recent literature on the subject.     

Abe Isoo and Kawakami Hajime in Interwar Japan — Economic Reform or Revolution?

This article explores the views of two eminent professors of economics, Abe Isoo (1865-1949) and Kawakami Hajime (1879-1946), regarding their socialist economic theories for easing poverty in Japan during the interwar years (1918-1939). Prior to this period, Abe believed the cure to capitalism’s ills lay in a combination of socialist economic reforms (sangyô demokurashii) and individual spiritual refinement. Kawakami, at that time a bourgeois economist, prioritised the spiritual revolution of the rich over any socialist-type economic reform. Thus, although convinced of the need for a different approach to eradicating poverty, they nevertheless agreed in the need for gradual change rather than radical reform (Gavin East Asia An International Quarterly 24:1, 30). The year 1928 marked a significant turning point both for Japanese social movements and in the lives of Abe and Kawakami. That year heralded Japan’s first national election under the new Universal Male Suffrage Law, and saw the police exercise their extended authority as they undertook a nationwide round-up of students and intellectuals suspected of left-wing tendencies (the March 15 Incident). Also in that year, Abe and Kawakami resigned from academic posts to dedicate themselves to alleviating the privations of the working class. Abe, by then well known as the father of Japanese socialism and as a Christian pacifist, became a symbolic figure for Japan’s working class parties, although he later came to support the government during WWII. Kawakami, who was forced to resign from his post during the round-up, “washed his hands of bourgeois economics”, became a prominent spokesman for Marxism in Japan ([28], xi, pp. 76, 169). This article will reveal that both Abe and Kawakami’s social and economic theories changed during the interwar period, so that Abe came to see imperial sovereignty as crucial to socialist economic reform, while Kawakami came to see it as a minion of the capitalists and advocated institutional and political revolution.     

Nationalism,Domestic Politics,and the Japan Economic Rejuvenation

This article explores the role of nationalism in domestic politics in Japan since 2005 by contrasting the Koizumi and the Abe administration of 2012/2013. It argues that the Koizumi and Abe administrations have exploited nationalism as a means to consolidate political power, move away from faction-based politics toward populism-based politics to weaken factions within the political system with entrenched interests that are counter to or prevent bolder, necessary economic reforms to propel Japan out of 20 years of economic stagnation. Furthermore, this article demonstrates that while each politician has used nationalism to mobilize popular support for their respective administrations, Koizumi’s use of nationalism was to achieve an economic agenda while Abe’s use of nationalism has been used to achieve his political agenda which includes constitutional reform.     

日本财政投融资体制改革的特点及借鉴

日本的财政投融资体制曾经对日本经济的发展产生过重要影响。但是,随着日本经济的不断发展,财政投融资的僵化体制已经越来越不适应新的经济发展形势。在这一背景下,以市场筹集资金为核心的财政投融资体制改革便展开了。此次改革有如下特点：总体规模逐步缩小;资金来源更加多样化;资金运用方向有所调整;加强信息披露引入政策成本分析机制等。从日本财政投融资体制改革中我们可以借鉴的是改革方向的市场化、信息的透明和资金的重点集中投放。     

Reforming Local Government in Germany: Institutional Changes and Performance Impacts

The article analyses trajectories and impacts of local government reforms in Germany. It scrutinises four major approaches of reform that have affected the local authorities since the beginning of the 1990s: decentralisation, privatisation, administrative reforms (‘New Steering Model’) and the direct election of mayors. The objective of the article is to encompass the multifaceted elements and effects of local government reform in Germany. Firstly, the author examines the institutional changes that have occurred in the local councils. Secondly, the broader effects and impacts of the institutional transformations are dealt with, analysing how the latter has enhanced performance, steering capacity and political accountability. Finally, the author evaluates the extent to which the reforms have put their mark on the inherited and historic tradition of the German local government system.