The trust deficit in Sino-Japanese relations

Abstract

Recent years have seen a deterioration in political relations between China and Japan, in particular over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands and history-related problems. Commentators have noted an attendant decline in trust between the two sides and have stressed the need for confidence-building measures in order to address the trust deficit. This article explores the origins of declining trust between the Chinese and Japanese leaderships. It argues that attempts to build a friendly and trusting relationship in the early post-war and post-normalisation periods began to fail in the 1980s, and have been in a gradual state of decline ever since. Using the concepts of trust and friendship, the article suggests that the lack of trust properties such as empathy, bonding, reliability and predictability have contributed to the deterioration of trust at both elite and popular levels.     

The irrelevance of negative campaigns to political trust: Experimental and survey results

This article examines how media and partisan mechanisms of accountability influence presidential agendas in Latin America. The authors argue that responsiveness increases in powerful presidential systems when opposition parties and free media help citizens hold presidents accountable between elections. Where presidents must contend with a cohesive, ideological opposition and effective constraints to their power, they turn to valence issues with broad appeal and over which they have greater control. A free media—one without significant economic, legal, or political constraints—pressures the president to respond to the electorate's concerns, which include crime and corruption due to the incentives that motivate news content and the media's agenda-setting powers. Analyzing more than 50 presidential terms across 18 countries, the authors show that when Latin American presidents face either free and competitive media or strong legislative oppositions, homicide rates and the level of perceived corruption tend to be lower. Thus, this study proposes that efforts to improve media or partisan environments, or both, would help address Latin America's accountability deficit and promote good governance in the region.     

The effects of executive constraints on political trust

This article explores political trust, delving into its subcomponents and the relationship between them. It is interested in explaining why governmental trust and trust in regulative state institutions are similar in some countries and different in others. It argues that the variation can best be explained by checks on the executive. This is the case because the more restricted the executive, the less regulative state institutions are affected by the fluctuations in governmental trust. When the government cannot encroach upon state institutions, the impartiality and efficacy of regulative institutions are maintained. The less governmental interference to regulative state institutions, the more such institutions will be devoted to the public rather than partisan interests, resulting in a wider gap between state and government trust. The argument is tested through an empirical analysis of a cross-national panel data based on all existing waves of the World Values Survey.     

Developing political trust in a developing country: the impact of institutional and cultural factors on political trust in Ghana

Political distrust is often widespread in African countries, but the prospects for increasing trust are uncertain given the lack of research on the origins of political trust in the region. Using the 2013 NSS Survey in Ghana and employing hierarchical regression analyses, we develop a model of institutional trust based on insights from both cultural and institutional performance theories. The results clearly support the superiority of institutional performance theories while at the same time providing limited support for cultural explanations. National pride, however, does also substantially encourage institutional trust. This asks for future, cultural-specific studies on trust-building in developing countries trying to establish working institutions using more representative, cross-national, and longitudinal data.     

Food safety and consumer trust in post-Fukushima Japan

Abstract

The contamination of food with radionuclides has posed serious problems to consumers, producers and policy makers in Japan since the Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 2011. Many Japanese consumers were and still are worried about the safety of domestic food products. How did the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima affect consumer trust in food safety regulation, and how did the Japanese government try to (re)establish consumer trust in its food governance system? Drawing on empirical data from a consumer survey, expert interviews and documents issued by the Japanese government and public authorities, this paper argues that existing institutions had difficulty handling the situation and rebuilding consumer trust. I will argue that consumers in Japan lack trust in government institutions and the food industry and that the government's risk communication was not suitable for rebuilding trust. This specific situation saw the emergence of new actors from civil society, such as citizens’ radioactivity monitoring stations (CRMS). These actors took over some of the functions of public authorities by providing information and monitoring food. I argue that they have the potential to build trust by fostering the participation of lay people and encouraging a more democratic discourse on food safety. Nevertheless there are some limitations.     

Party politics,elections and (mis-)trust in Japan

Abstract

Trust matters profoundly for many dimensions of political life. In this article we focus on political trust: how the trust or mistrust citizens have toward the political process, politicians and government affects politics. Prior research has shown that political trust influences such crucial dimensions of politics as the basic legitimacy of government, political participation, voting behavior, compliance with government, and reform orientation. In this article, we seek to answer three major questions. First, is political trust declining in Japan? Second, we are interested in exploring the determinants of trust and distrust in politics: why do people lose trust in politics? What kinds of voters lose political trust? Third, we explore the consequences: what happens when people lose trust in government and politics.     

Trust deficit: Japanese communities and the challenge of rebuilding Tohoku

Abstract

Trust between civil society and the state is a necessary pre-condition for successful public policy in advanced industrial democracies. It is all the more important following a mass catastrophe that affects hundreds of thousands and upends the rhythms of daily life across the country. Choices made by the Japanese government and energy utilities during and after the compounded 11 March 2011 disasters damaged relationships between civil society, utility firms, and the government. This article looks at how decision makers in Japan continue to struggle with a trust deficit and how that gap has altered the behavior of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society as a whole. Residents will continue to resist what they see as flawed disaster recovery and nuclear restart processes unless the political system undergoes major reform.     

The political economy of the Trans-Pacific Partnership: a US perspective

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), signed in February 2016, is the most ambitious free trade deal of the postwar era. The 12 TPP countries account for nearly 40 percent of the world's economy. Coupled with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership—which is still being negotiated between the United States and the European Union—the TPP represents an attempt by the Obama Administration to lead in promoting regional trade and investment arrangements despite the failure of the Doha Round to reach a comprehensive global trade deal under the auspices of the World Trade Organization. Although the agreement among the 12 TPP countries has been reached, ratification by their legislatures is pending. Ratification by the US Congress remains uncertain due to complex economic and political factors in the United States, including the presidential election of 2016.     

Japanese political economy revisited: diverse corporate change,institutional transformation,and Abenomics

Abstract

This introductory article to the special issue on “Japanese Political Economy Revisited: Diverse Corporate Change, Institutional Transformation, and Abenomics” starts with a short summaryof the changing perceptions of Japan's political economy from its meteoric rise as worldwide leading model in the 1970s and 1980s to its demotiontoa problem and reform case since the later 1990s. Based on this overview, it identifies some striking issue and open questions in this conventional view of Japan's political economy as problem and the high expectations on Abenomics as Japan's current economic reform programme. Then we discuss the articles of the special issue and their new contributionsto a better understanding of the developments at the corporate level as well as institutional change and economic reforms at the macro level in the last two decades. Finally, this introductory article ends with a short outlineof a new research programme and four central research questions about the Japanese political economy.     

Japan's Promotion Policy toward ASEAN Interconnections

In Japan's support for ASEAN countries' connection building can be seen its policy visions in functional positioning,geographical layout and connotation constitution.As part of a systematic policy framework,Japan supports ASEAN transregional and outside-regional connections with the Mekong subregion as focal point,pushes forward metropolitan interconnection of ASEAN countries with Jakarta a priority,promotes building infrastructure,develops rules,and constructs better external environments for connectivity,all while advancing its Partnership for Quality Infrastructure to attract ASEAN countries' cooperation.Because of Japan's economic interests and geopolitical strategy toward ASEAN countries,Japan's policy influences China's Belt and Road Initiative and China should properly respond to Japan's actions.     

试论新世纪日本对东盟的外交政策

新世纪日本对东盟的外交政策,摆脱了经济外交的单一性,在发展经济关系的基础上,取得了区域合作的突破性进展,并加强与东盟的政治对话、安全合作以及军事交流,旨在主导亚洲经济一体化,扩大在东南亚地区的政治势力和军事安全影响,并争取成为安理会常任理事国和国际社会的重要一极,逐步实现政治大国的目标。     

Terrorism and trust

Trust enables us to simplify and understand complicated realities and orientate ourselves in them, which we do through symbolic systems, including myth and religion. Terrorism results when those systems generate extreme distrust, especially between ethnic or religious groups. Within nation-states pre-conditions of trust include normative coherence, stability, openness and accountability. In international relations these pre-conditions are more difficult to establish. But it is still possible. The process usually includes reaction to a crisis, the creation of good personal relationships between leaders, mutual concessions, well-documented agreements with provision for verification, and opportunities for populations to get to know each other.     

从日本对泰国的援助评日本的官方发展援助

本文论述了日本选择泰国作为重点援助对象的主要原因,着重分析日本对泰国援助的几个主要阶段及其特点,指出随着日本对泰国援助领域和规模的不断扩大以及援助方式的逐步改变,援助不仅促进了泰国社会经济的发展,而且也实现了日本政府的战略目标。尽管日本的援助具有较强的功利性,但它也有助于泰国的发展。     

日本对大湄公河次区域(GMS)五国援助述评

本文拟从援助目的、机制、特点以及效果等几个方面,就日本对大湄公河次区域(GMS)五国的援助做综合评述。笔者认为,日本对GMS五国援助最大的特点在于对基础设施的投入和人力资源的培养。这两个方面的援助不仅能切实解决被援助国面临的问题,而且还能培植亲日人员。正因为如此,尽管日本的援助在受援国得到一定的好评,但也引来诸多批评。此外,对基础设施提供援助的最大收益方往往是日本,因此日本的援助具有功利性。     

冷战后日本对湄公河次区域5国的官方发展援助(ODA)

本文主要介绍日本对湄公河次区域5国——越南、柬埔寨、老挝、缅甸和泰国的官方发展援助(ODA)政策和援助情况,并对日本对湄公河次区域ODA援助现状进行评价。     

Probabilistic forecasting of political events

Political conflicts are modeled as Markovian processes where the states are the possible outcomes and the forecast is the steady‐state probability of each outcome. The input variables are the power of the actors, the salience of the issue to the actors and the desirability of each possible outcome to the actors.

The modeling flexibility of the proposed method is verified by its application to twenty‐eight actual conflicts that include economic and political issues resolved on national and international settings. The predictive capability of the method is established by close agreement between probability intervals of the forecasts and the actual outcomes.     

The political process of Boko Haram insurgency onset: a political relevance model

ABSTRACT

As more data emerges on the Boko Haram phenomenon, the controversy over the roots of the insurgency persists. While some emphasise transnational motivational factors based on the Salafist ideology, others focus on diverse local structural factors, including the economy, religion, and politics. Although this article acknowledges the importance of these factors, it argues that these are ubiquitous contextual factors which insufficiently explain the location and timing of the insurgency. By introducing the Political Relevance Model, this article theorises the insurgency onset by focusing on the agency of the local political elites and their relationship with the sect. It finds that the insurgency is rooted in an initial mutually beneficial relationship between the local political elites and a politically relevant group that turned sour, resulting in the attempt by the elites to withdraw the group’s earlier privileges using state coercion which the group frames as state repression requiring violent resistance. These agents have, in their interest, framed this struggle to resonate with the people.     

Terrorism and trust in Northern Ireland

While terrorism produces certainty that the ‘other’ intends to do harm, and chronic uncertainty about the potential for terrorist attack, trust requires the negotiation of uncertainty. This paper begins with a review of the existing literature on trust and terrorism, as a point of departure for analysing the usefulness of thinking about trust as the negotiation of uncertainty. The four substantive sections that follow examine the 1981 Hunger strikes, the beginnings of political dialogue, the construction of cross-border institutions, and the potential for developing emotional trust in the Northern Irish context. In each of the areas, the development of a rudimentary trust has hinged on the destabilisation of mutually exclusive identity categories, defined in conflictual opposition to the ‘other’, and the opening of a space for the construction of multiple and overlapping identities and the negotiation between them.     

日本医疗保险制度的改革进程及对我国的启示

日本在战后建立了比较完善的医疗保险体制,获得了世界的认可和好评。鉴于近年来社会环境的变化对医疗保险制度产生的深刻影响,1997年以来日本政府对医疗保险制度进行了多次改革,这些改革经验对于正处在医疗改革关键时刻的我国政府来说有很多的借鉴之处。     

日本居家护理服务的发展与启示

日本自20世纪70年代进入人口老龄化社会,老人的养老护理成为社会问题,为应对人口老龄化的挑战,日本建立护理保险制度,护理保险由居家护理服务和设施护理服务两部分组成,主要为居家护理服务。日本的居家护理服务很好地解决了日本养老服务问题,呈现出自己的鲜明特点,对我国养老服务提供了有益的借鉴。