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TO ASSESS BUREAUCRATIC PENETRATION OF THE POLICYMAKING IN POSTWAR JAPAN, FOUR INDICATORS ARE EXAMINED: THE DECLINING ROLE OF THE DIET AS AN INDEPENDENT LEGISLATIVE ORGAN; LINKS BETWEEN THE RULING LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND THE BUREAUCRACY; THE BUREAUCRACY'S USE OR ORDINANCE POWER; AND THE SIGNIFICANT CONTROL EXERCISED OVER ALLEGEDLY INDEPENDENT ADVISORY COMMITTEES.

The dynamics of Northeast Asia have traditionally been considered primarily in military and hard security terms or alternatively along their economic dimensions. This book argues that relations among the states of Northeast Asia are far more comprehensible when the mutually shaping interactions between economics and security are considered simultaneously. It examines these interactions and some of the key empirical questions they pose, the answers to which have important lessons for international relations beyond Northeast Asia. Contributors to this volume analyze how the states of the region

REGIME SHIFT -- CONTENTS -- Preface -- Introduction: Long Continuities, Radical Shifts -- PART I. REGIMES-DIVERGENT APPROACHES TO POSTWAR STABILITY -- 1. Patterns of Political Economy: A Range of Regimes -- 2. Japan in the 1960s: Conservative Politics and Economic Growth -- 3. From Chaos to Cohesion: Formation of the Conservative Regime -- PART II. REGIME SHIFTS-ADJUSTMENT, COLLAPSE, AND RECONSTRUCTION -- 4. Transition and Breakdown: An Era of Reconfigurations -- 5. Japan in the 1990s: Fragmented Politics and Economic Turmoil -- 6. Between Adjustment and Unraveling: Protection and Erosion of the Old Regime -- Conclusion: Regimes in a Changing World Economy -- Notes -- Index

In the wake of major domestic and international changes, most especially the end of the Cold War and 9/11 for all, but additionally the collapse of the asset bubble in Japan and the transition from military authoritarianism to democratization in the ROK and Taiwan, all of the countries in question saw sharply divided domestic coalitions pressing for often diametrically opposed courses in national security and foreign policy. This brief begins by noting the limits of classical realist interpretations of international relations in Northeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific. It then addresses the importance of 'comprehensive security' as a driver for all of the countries in question. Finally, it examines the broad domestic clashes over foreign and security policy in each of four key democracies in the region and closes with a few general observations about the salience of regional domestic politics.

This brief examines the issue of transparency during and after the period of political dominance by the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) which ruled with only a brief nine-month interruption from 1955–2009. It highlights two related but analytically separate dimensions of governmental transparency—transparency in decision-making processes and transparency in official policies. The first concentrates on the public visibility of how agencies decide on matters under their jurisdiction; the second focuses on how visible actual government policies are to those most affected by them and to the general citizenry. I argue that Japanese agencies have been far more open on policy content than on the processes by which those decisions were reached. In addition, this brief examines recent changes designed to foster greater transparency in both process and policy, including a Freedom of Information Act, e-government provisions, enhanced roles for parliamentary inquiry, a greater role for nongovernmental organizations, and other measures. It also highlights the broad shifts in government attitudes toward transparency under the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which has governed since 2009.