Comments on ComparativeConstitutions.org: Guest Post: Matsudaira on Japan Election

Yes. It was important under the LDP regime, especi...

2009-09-23T06:56:23.008-05:00

Yes. It was important under the LDP regime, especially after the 1980s.

"The DPJ has prohibited its Diet members from...

2009-09-22T10:59:28.471-05:00

"The DPJ has prohibited its Diet members from directly proposing bills"

In the Commonwealth and Ireland this is called a 'Private Member's Bill'. Only a tiny number ever become law, and then only with government support. So I think even if they were abolished it would make a negligible difference.

Is this kind of bill more important in Japan?

Thanks for the comment. DPJ has made it clear that...

2009-09-22T07:56:27.785-05:00

Thanks for the comment. DPJ has made it clear that the policy making in each of ministries will be conducted by the Minister (1), Vice Minister (1-2) and parliamentary secretary (2), all of them are members of the Diet. But, as you point out, each team is too small to replace tradtional bureaucratic policy making. So far the new ministers still rely on the DPJ's staff to advice them. For DPJ government, it will take months to pass new statutes creating more jobs for political appointee.

The new government also has banned high rank bureaucrats from holding press conference-under LDP's "ancien regime" administrative heads of ministries forced their bosses to accept their policy by holding press conference or "leaking" to the press. The DPJ government's policy has offended the reporters of mainstream media, who were also beneficiaries and allies of ancien regime, protesting that DPJ's new policy violates freedom of the press.
Japan has been a state of bureaucracy since the Meiji era, and bureaucrats have seized the power to propose bills, make rules and policies for a hundred years. I don't think they will just accept their failure and go back to work as "public employee".

This seems like a sensible strategy for the DPJ: e...

2009-09-21T09:38:19.544-05:00

This seems like a sensible strategy for the DPJ: early on they need to establish strong party discipline to maintain their coalition and to stand down the bureaucracy, which is their stated immediate goal. But the risk is that the cabinet will lack sufficient information to tackle important policy problems. If you antagonize the bureacracy, and do not incentivise the legislature to provide policy ideas, where do the ideas come from, and on what information are they based?