Asia and Oceania

Japan
Last reviewed: 17 October 2008

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POLITICS

Japan's Diet consists of the House of Representatives, and the less powerful House of Councillors. The House of Representatives has 480 members (300 from single seat constituencies and 180 from regional PR blocks); the House of Councillors has 242 members (146 from prefecture-based multimember constituencies and 96 from a national PR list.). Members of the House of Representatives are elected for a four-year term, but the Prime Minister can call an election at his discretion. Members of the House of Councillors serve a fixed six-year term, with half of the seats contested every three years. The last general election (House of Representatives) was held on 11 September 2005; the next must be held by September 2009. The last Upper House election took place on 29 July 2007.

The conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has ruled Japan for most of its post-war history. In power continuously from 1955-1993, they were toppled by a loose coalition of their rivals in 1993. But in 1994 they were back in power as part of a coalition and nearly all governments since then have been LDP-led coalition governments. The current coalition was formed in April 2000 between the LDP and New Komeito, a small party with close ties to the lay Buddhist organisation, Soka Gakkai. The main Opposition party is the "centrist" Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

After a succession of short-lived leaders in the late 1990s, Junichiro Koizumi became Prime Minister in April 2001. His fresh approach was popular with the public allowing him to pursue difficult structural reforms and tackle vested interests within the party. When faced by internal opposition to his plans to privatise the post office, he took the rebels on by calling a Lower House election and won an overwhelming victory with his coalition gaining two-thirds of the seats. Koizumi was succeeded as Prime Minister by Shinzo Abe on 26 September 2006. His position was weakened when the LDP and New Komeito lost their Upper House majority in the election on 29 July 2007 and he finally resigned on 12 September 2007 after just one year as Prime Minister.

Yasuo Fukuda succeeded Abe as Prime Minister on 25 September 2007. He had a moderate, consensual approach and pushed for constructive engagement with the Opposition but with minimal success. After months of low poll ratings he offered his resignation unexpectedly on 1 September after less than one year in office.

His successor, Taro Aso, was elected Prime Minister on 24 September. Aso is the grandson of the post-war Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida and he served as Foreign Minister in the Koizumi government. His most recent position was LDP Secretary General. He is popular with the public and during his leadership campaign pledged to tackle social and economic issues. He is keen to see Japan asserting itself more internationally and his approach to foreign policy is likely to reflect this.

The Aso Government’s main priority is reviving economic growth and has already introduced a supplementary budget. The Opposition has said that it will cooperate on this although its priority will then be to push for an early dissolution of the Lower House and an election.

HUMAN RIGHTS

There has recently been increasing discussion of human rights issues in Japan. The main issues of interest to activists in the past was the treatment of minorities of Japan, including 'lower caste' Japanese, the Ainu race in Hokkaido, and ethnic Korean and Chinese residents in Japan. With the Japanese Government having taken some action to deal with these, the focus has moved on to the rights of children and women. Legislation to counter child abuse, both in Japan and abroad, has been passed and measures are also being introduced to reduce the level of domestic violence. Japan still retains (and carries out) the death penalty and Britain, through the EU, regularly takes this up with the Japanese Government, although there is still overwhelming support for capital punishment in Japan. There are also concerns over Japan’s criminal justice system, in particular legislation which enables suspects to be detained for up to 23 days without charge while police try to extract confessions.