1,514,724,893 visitors served.

forum mailing list For webmasters

Japan

Country in northeast Asia, occupying a group of islands of which the four main ones are Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku. Japan is situated between the Sea of Japan (to the west) and the north Pacific (to the east), east of North and South Korea.

Government

Japan is a parliamentary democracy. Its 1946 constitution, revised in 1994, was framed by the occupying Allied forces with the intention of creating a consensual, parliamentary form of government and avoiding an over-concentration of executive authority. Its head of state is the emperor, whose functions are purely ceremonial. Japan is the only country in the world headed by an hereditary emperor. Japan has a two-chamber legislature, or parliament, the Diet (Kokkai). It comprises a 242-member upper chamber, the house of councillors (Sangiin), and a 480-member lower chamber, the house of representatives (Shugiin). The upper house comprises 146 representatives elected from 47 prefectural constituencies by the ‘limited-vote’ system and 96 elected nationally by proportional representation. Each member serves a six-year term, the chamber being elected half at a time every three years. Representatives to the lower house are elected by universal suffrage for four-year terms, 300 from single-member constituencies and 180 by proportional representation in 11 regions throughout the country (this system, approved by parliament in 1994, replaced one under which representatives had been elected from large multi-member constituencies by the ‘limited-vote’ system). The house of representatives is the most powerful chamber, able to override (if a two-thirds majority is gained) vetoes on bills imposed by the house of councillors, and enjoying supremacy on financial questions. Legislative business is effected through a system of standing committees. Executive administration is entrusted to a prime minister, chosen by parliament, who selects a cabinet that is collectively responsible to parliament.

History For earlier Japanese history, see Japan: prehistoric and ancient history to AD 400, Japan: early feudal history 400–1192, Japan: shogunate and restoration history 1192–1869, Japan: history 1869–1912, Japan: history 1912–41, and Japan: history 1941–45.

Japan in defeat

The surrender of Japan at the end of World War II to the Allies – formally concluded on 2 September 1945 – marked the opening of a new epoch in the history of eastern Asia. For the preceding half century Japan had pursued a policy of militaristic expansionism. On the basis of unquestioning loyalty to the imperial throne, the whole nation had been taught to face any hardships that might be entailed in following the national destiny; the throne itself had been exalted from a temporal to a quasi-divine institution, and the servants of the throne down to the humblest private soldier had been encouraged to regard themselves as a race apart from the rest of humanity, participating in the godlike characteristics of emperor and nation.

Some of the hard-line Japanese leaders sought suicide. Hajime Sugiyama, chief of the Japanese General Staff and minister of war in several crucial cabinets, committed suicide on 12 September, and Gen Hideki Tojo tried to kill himself when US officers went to arrest him.

Territorial losses

After Japan's defeat, Korea was made independent, Manchuria and Formosa (Taiwan) were returned to China, and the Pacific islands mandated to Japan after World War I – the Caroline, Marshall, Mariana, and Palau islands – were placed by the United Nations (UN) under US trusteeship. It also lost some of its outlying islands to the USA and the USSR. It regained the Ryukyu Islands in 1972 and the Bonin and Volcano Islands in 1968 from the USA, but continues to agitate for the return from Russia of the Northern Territories (the islands of the Shikotan and Habomai group) and the southernmost Kuril Islands (Kunashiri and Etorofu).

Allied occupation and control

An Allied control commission took charge of Japan itself, and Gen Douglas MacArthur, US supreme commander of the Allied forces of occupation (mostly consisting of US troops), had little difficulty in carrying out his instructions for the disarmament of Japan and for the destruction of its war potential both in the moral and material sphere. The land forces were disarmed and disbanded, all aircraft were confiscated, and the Japanese navy was virtually disbanded.

After the dissolution of the Imperial General Headquarters, and the arrest of many prominent individuals who had been indicted as war criminals, came the entire control by Allied authorities of the commercial and industrial life of Japan. This included the break-up of landlord holdings among peasant proprietors. There was also a major ‘democratization campaign’, involving radical social and educational reform.

Social reform and abolition of the Tokubetsu Koto Keisatsu, or special higher police (also known as shiso keisatsu, ‘thought police’), in October 1945, paved the way for building a new democratic Japanese government and the breaking of the political power of the old military and administrative clique.

The Japanese cooperated to help MacArthur restore normal social and economic conditions, despite food shortages, soaring inflation, innumerable strikes, and rampant criminality. Unlike Allied occupied Germany, Japan was administered as a whole by the single controlling authority, the Supreme Commander's Headquarters, working through the Japanese government, and in the provinces through US military personnel. After 1948 the occupation authorities enforced the deflationary Dodge Line, curbed labour excesses, and, following the victory of the Communists in China, made an about-turn in prodding the Japanese towards rearmament. Allied rule continued in Japan until April 1952.

The 1946 constitution

A year after the surrender, Japan's house of representatives adopted a new ‘Peace Constitution’, which superseded the Meiji constitution of 1889. Based largely upon US ideas, the new constitution based the foundations of the state upon the will of the electorate. It restricted the functions of the emperor Hirohito (era name Shōwa), who renounced his claims to divinity and became a powerless figurehead ruler. Article IX of the constitution renounced warfare as an instrument of public policy and banned the maintenance of any armed forces by which war could be waged, although it implicitly reserved the right to maintain self-defence forces as authorized by the UN charter.

In the elections of April 1946, women voted for the first time in Japanese history, and there were 38 women among the candidates elected. The voting age had been reduced from 25 to 20.

Reconstruction and Westernization

From the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, reconstruction proceeded rapidly, and, with vast US financial aid, the re-industrialization of Japan was considerably accelerated. This new industrial revolution, unlike that of 50 years previously, brought a great improvement in living standards to the workers involved. A strong and now legalized trade-union movement helped to consolidate this.

The increased urbanization and Westernization of Japan brought with it some serious social problems, on a scale not hitherto encountered in Japan. Legalized abortion drastically reduced the birth rate, thus diminishing Japan's population problem, but raising the possibility of an acute labour shortage and imbalance of population in the future. The memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki encouraged the growth of a strong pacifist movement among young Japanese intellectuals; this was fostered by the Japanese Communist Party, because of its anti-American implications.

In 1951 a peace treaty was signed in San Francisco, USA, between Japan and the representatives of 48 countries. In the same year a Security Treaty was signed with the USA that gave the USA the right to maintain troops and bases in Japan. Under the Mutual Defence Pact of 1954 the USA supplied most of the equipment needed by the Japanese armed forces, which had been revived by MacArthur as a ‘national police reserve’ (subsequently renamed ‘self-defence force’) in 1950, despite Communist and pacifist protests. With its military defence assured by the USA, Japan tended towards neutralism in foreign affairs.

Japan's growing prosperity led to a decline in Communist influence after 1952, while a fusion of non-Communist left-wing groups resulted in increased political stability. In 1956 Japan became a member of the United Nations Organization. In 1959 the ‘democratization’ of the Japanese royal family was exemplified in the crown prince's marriage to a commoner. However, violent demonstrations in Tokyo in 1960 showed continuing anti-Americanism.

Liberal Democratic hegemony

Post-war politics in Japan were dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), formed in 1955 from the merger of existing pro-capitalist conservative parties and providing a regular succession of prime ministers. Real decision-making, however, centred around a broader, consensual grouping of politicians, senior civil servants, and directors of the major keiretsu (post-war finance and industrial houses, much less closely integrated than the former family-dominated zaibatsu). Through a paternalist, guided approach to economic development, epitomized by the operations of the Ministry for International Trade and Industry (MITI), the Japanese economy expanded dramatically during the 1950s and 1960s, with gross national product (GNP) increasing by 10% per year.

The LDP won the general election in November 1960, and was again returned to power in 1963. Despite the challenge from the left, which loomed large in the 1950s, the Liberal Democrats continued to hold a majority in the Diet, although in the 1974 house of councillors elections they were scarcely able to maintain their dominance.

The proposed extension, without revision, of the 1951 Security Treaty with the USA led to demonstrations and, in 1968–69, to attacks by the Red Army guerrilla organization protesting against US domination. In 1970 the crisis had been surmounted, partly because the government of Eisaku Sato, who was prime minister 1964–72, had secured in 1969 a promise from the US president Richard Nixon that Okinawa would be restored to Japan in 1972. In 1972 Sato's successor, Kakuei Tanaka, gained a similar success in foreign affairs by normalizing Japanese relations with Communist China in the wake of Nixon's visit to Beijing.

Over the next two years, economic difficulties and allegations of personal misconduct resulted in a loss of support for Tanaka's leadership, and he resigned in December 1974, being succeeded by Takeo Miki. The eruption in February 1976 of a scandal over huge bribes received from the US Lockheed corporation, and the subsequent arrest of Tanaka, had a serious effect on the political situation. A split developed within the LDP, and Miki was forced to resign following the December 1976 general election, when the LDP lost the overall majority in the lower house that it had held since the merger of the two parties in 1955. However, with the support of independents, an LDP government was formed under Takeo Fukuda.

Reasons for conservative dominance

Apart from the political skill of Liberal Democrat leaders, four factors lay behind the conservative dominance.

First, the opposition was divided. The Socialists split into two separate parties in 1960. Also, many of the fast-growing urban proletariat voted for Komeito, the political arm of a new religious sect Soka Gakkai, and in the early 1970s for the revived Japan Communist Party.

Second, a distorted electoral system gave disproportionate weight to rural areas, where conservative support was strong, partly because the government assured farmers a high price for rice.

Third, the Liberal Democrats attracted most business funding, giving it a large advantage as Japan's elections were costly to fight.

Fourth and most important, Liberal Democratic rule witnessed rapid economic growth, of 10% a year to 1973, which became known as the Japanese ‘economic miracle’.

Economic impact abroad

The 1973 world oil crisis caused Japan's economic growth to temporarily stall. It soon resumed, but at a reduced average annual rate for the decade of 4.5%. Japan made a major impact in the markets of North America and Europe as an exporter of electronics, machinery, and motor vehicles. This created resentment overseas as economic recession began to grip Europe and the USA, and led to calls for Japan to open up its internal market to foreign exporters and to assume a greater share of the defence burden for the Asia–Pacific region. During the premierships of Miki (1974–76), Fukuda (1976–78), Masayoshi Ohira (1978–80), and Zenko Suzuki (1980–82), Japan resisted these pressures, and in 1976 the Japanese government placed a rigid limit of 1% of gross national product on military spending.

Liberalization

A review of policy was instituted by Yasuhiro Nakasone, who became prime minister in 1982. He favoured a strengthening of Japan's military capability, a re-evaluation of attitudes towards the country's past, and the introduction of a more liberal, open-market economic strategy at home. The yen was revalued in 1985.

Nakasone's policy departures were controversial and only partly implemented. However, he gained a landslide victory in the 1986 elections, and became the first prime minister since Sato (1964–72) to be re-elected by the LDP for more than one term. Before the defeat in 1987 of his plans for tax reform, Nakasone was able to select Noboru Takeshita as his successor.

Political scandals

Takeshita continued Nakasone's domestic and foreign policies, introducing a 3% sales tax in 1988 and lowering income-tax levels to boost domestic consumption. The new sales tax was electorally unpopular, and the government's standing during 1988–89 was further undermined by revelations of insider share-dealing (the Recruit scandal), in which more than 40 senior LDP and opposition figures, including Takeshita, Nakasone, and the finance minister Kiichi Miyazawa, were implicated. Takeshita was forced to resign in June 1989.

This marked an inauspicious start to the new Heisei (‘attaining peace’) era proclaimed on the death in January 1989 of Hirohito and the accession of his son Akihito as emperor. The new prime minister Sosuke Uno, the former foreign minister, was dogged by a sex scandal and resigned after only 53 days in office. He was replaced by Toshiki Kaifu, a member of the LDP's small scandal-free Komoto faction. Elections in February 1990 were won by the LDP, but with large gains for the Japanese Socialist Party (JSP), led by Ms Takako Doi.

Support for the Gulf Allies

When another insider trading scandal emerged in the autumn of 1990, it was overshadowed by the crisis in the Gulf, caused by Iraq's annexation of Kuwait. Although Japan is constitutionally debarred from sending troops abroad, the Diet's refusal to pass a bill authorizing the sending of unarmed, non-combatant military personnel damaged Kaifu's standing. However, Japan pledged US$13 billion to support the US-led anti-Iraq coalition in the Gulf War. After the war, in 1991, Japan contributed over US$2.6 million towards the environmental cleanup, sent teams of experts to help repair desalination plants and remove oil spills, and donated US$110 million for the relief of the Kurds and other displaced people.

Miyazawa's troubled government

In November 1991 Kaifu was succeeded as LDP leader, and prime minister, by Kiichi Miyazawa, whose government included a surprisingly large number of ‘rehabilitated’ members tainted by the Lockheed and Recruit scandals. During 1992 the Miyazawa government was rocked by a succession of damaging bribery and corruption scandals, the most serious being centred on the Tokyo Sagawa Kyubin company and its enormous political donations and links with organized crime. More than 100 politicians, a seventh of the Diet membership, were implicated, and in October 1992 it forced the resignation from the Diet of Shin Kanemaru, the LDP's deputy chair and most influential figure.

Economic recession and political decline

A crash in the Japanese stock market in summer 1992 was followed by an economic recession which lasted until 1996. This provided the backcloth to increasing political instability.

In June 1993, after losing a vote of confidence over proposed electoral reforms, Prime Minister Miyazawa called a general election. The LDP had been weakened by the formation of two new parties by dissidents: Shinseito (Japan Renewal Party), led by Tsutomu Hata; and the Japan New Party (Nihon Shinto, JNP), led by Morohiro Hosokawa. As a consequence, it failed to win an overall majority in the July 1993 general election, ending 38 years in power. Miyazawa resigned as LDP leader and was succeeded by Yohei Kono.

In August 1993, Morohiro Hosokawa of the JNP became prime minister, heading a non-LDP coalition. In February 1994 Hosokawa secured parliamentary approval of a compromise political-reform package, aimed at curbing corruption. The reforms included restriction of political donations and restructuring of the system by which members of the chamber of deputies were elected. In April 1994 accusations of corruption forced Hosokawa's resignation. Tsutomu Hata of the Shinseito party was appointed to replace him but, within hours of taking office, the Social Democratic Party of Japan (SDPJ) withdrew their support, leaving him heading a minority coalition government.

‘Grand coalition’ government

An improbable ‘grand coalition’ was formed in June 1994, with the SDPJ's chairman Tomiichi Murayama serving as prime minister, and the LDP's president Yohei Kono as foreign minister and deputy prime minister. Passage of the final version of a long-debated political-reform package was achieved in November 1994. A new reform-orientated opposition grouping, Shinshinto (New Frontier Party, NFP), was formed in December 1994. Led by the popular former LDP premier Toshiki Kaifu, and from December 1995 by Ichiro Ozawa, it comprised 214 Diet members and represented a serious electoral threat to the LDP.

Natural disasters and terrorism in 1995

In January 1995 an earthquake hit the city of Kobe, claiming more than 4,000 lives. The government came under fire for its poor handling of the relief programme, and later made a public apology.

Two months later a nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway, carried out by the Aum Shinrikyō religious sect, killed 10 people and injured 5,000.

New prime minister and election in 1996

The populist-conservative trade and industry minister Ryutaro Hashimoto replaced Yohei Kono as LDP leader in September 1995, and in January 1996 became prime minister, after Murayama resigned.

In August 1996, a new Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) was formed by dissidents from the right-of-centre Shinto Sakigate and SDPJ. A general election in October produced an inconclusive result and a minority LDP government was subsequently formed.

In September 1996, following an agreement by the USA in April to close a number of its military bases on Okinawa (leaving around 47,000 troops and a large air base), the islanders voted for a further large reduction of the US presence.

Renewed economic recession

In 1998, after a brief recovery in 1996 and 1997, Japan's economy plunged back into recession. This followed the collapse, in November 1997, of the country's fourth-largest stockbroker, Yamaichi Securities, with debts of £15 billion. The brokerage employed 7,500 people at 117 domestic branches and more than 30 branches overseas. Japan's problems were part of a broader recession across Asia.

In July 1998, after the LDP polled badly in upper house elections, Hashimoto resigned as party leader and prime minister and was replaced by Keizo Obuchi. The former prime minister, Kiichi Miyazawa, became finance minister. This marked a return to traditional factional politics within the LDP and an emphasis on expansion of public works programmes to combat the recession.

Parliamentary coalition

In January 1999, the LDP formed a coalition government with Ichiro Ozawa's right-wing Liberal Party to increase its majority within the lower house.

In April 2000, Prime Minister Obuchi suffered a sudden stroke, and lapsed into a coma, from which he died in May. Yoshiro Mori, the secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, took over as prime minister. The LDP lost its majority in the June 2000 general election, but remained in power with the support of its coalition partners, the Buddhist Komei-to (Clean Government Party), and the Hoshu-to (Conservative Party).

Mori's popularity slumped dramatically as his government was beset by a series of scandals, unemployment climbed to a post-war high in early 2001, and the Tokyo stock market reached a 16-year low.

Mori replaced as prime minister by Koizumi

In April 2001, as Japan's financial crisis continued, Mori resigned and was replaced as prime minister and LDP leader by Junichiro Koizumi. The new government pledged to push through market-centred reforms, including privatization, deregulation, and reform of the banking system. Koizumi's personal popularity enabled the LDP coalition to retain its majority in July 2001 elections to the upper house of parliament.

In October 2001, Prime Minister Koizumi apologized for South Korean suffering during his country's occupation of the peninsula in World War II. Following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the Japanese government agreed to send 1,000 soldiers of the Japan Self-Defense Forces to help in Iraq's reconstruction. These troops were deployed in 2004, in what was Japan's biggest overseas troop deployment since World War II without the sanction of the UN.

From 2004, Japan emerged out of recession, although economic growth remained slow. The government's popularity improved and in September 2005 the LDP won its largest victory since 1986, and a majority in the lower house. As required by party rules, Koizumi stepped down as LDP leader and prime minister in 2006 and was succeeded by Shinzo Abe, Japan's youngest prime minister and first in office to be born since the war. Abe stepped down in 2007 after disappointing results and was replaced by Yasuo Fukuda.

1945 Buddhism China: history 1900 - 49 Hirohito Honshu Japan: early feudal history AD 400 - 1192 Japan: history 1869 - 1912 Japan: history 1912 - 41 Japan: history 1941 - 45 Japan: prehistoric and ancient history to AD 400

Japan: shogunate and restoration history 1192 - 1869 Korea: history 1637 - 1953 Maekawa, Kunio political events Thunberg, Carl Peter Tojo, Hideki wars World War II World War II (1939–45) More results