Download or read book The Nature of Japanese Governance: Seikai-Tensin's Political Success in Postwar Japan, 1947-2014 written by Nara Park and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this dissertation, I investigate Seikai-Tensin (ex-bureaucrat lawmakers)'s political success in postwar Japan, 1947-2014, which signifies the essential nature of Japanese governance. According to my study, about 20.2% of Councilors, 16.9% of Representatives, and 36.5% of cabinet members have been classified as Seikai-Tensin politicians since WWII. Bureaucratic culture has deeply been embedded in Japanese history, and institutionalized since the pre-modern period dating back to the 17th century. Within such a highly bureaucratic culture and society, prestigious bureaucratic career would be the best choice for public service-minded individuals, as it helps them contribute to society while achieving personal career goals. From an institutional point of view, the Seikai-Tensin's prominent political success reflects the close yet intricate relationship between bureaucracy and the Diet. In Japan, bureaucrats draft most legislative bills, so the Diet's limited policy expertise lacking in detail produces room for bureaucratic autonomy. Nonetheless, bureaucratic authority is largely constrained by the power of the Diet since politicians want to intervene in the policy process especially when they have high stakes in the policy. Taken together, a considerable number of bureaucrats conclude that they would rather become politicians to make policy with augmented authority bestowed upon Members of the Diet. Seikai-Tensin's transformation efficiently ensures professionalism in lawmaking; especially the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) prefers ex-bureaucrats in nominating its electoral candidates. In the eyes of voters, elite career bureaucrats, likely graduated from the University of Tokyo and affiliated with the LDP, nicely fit with an ideal image of the Japanese statesmen. As such, Seikai-Tensin's perennial political success is well-received in Japanese culture, society, and politics. To empirically study their transformation and political success, I developed a set of extensive datasets on personal background of Japanese politicians for the entire postwar period (1947-2014), which is by far the most comprehensive one in Japanese politics studies (Upper House: 5,705 cases, Lower House: 11,801 cases, Cabinet: 2,756 cases). In addition, I documented interview results of political and bureaucratic figures in Japan for qualitative research. My dissertation consists of two parts and five chapters within. Part I (Chapter 1 and 2) illustrates the Seikai-Tensin phenomenon at a macro level, whereas Part II (Chapter 3, 4, and 5) brings in a series of micro level analyses to delve deeper into the causal mechanism of individual Seikai-Tensin politicians' political success. Finally, Chapter 6 summarizes the previous chapters and discusses broader implications of this dissertation as a whole. My research takes a multi-method approach that includes empirical analyses (e.g., OLS Regression, Event History Analysis, Affiliation Network Analysis), archival research, and elite interviews. Overall, the findings of this dissertation present a bit different picture of Japanese governance than the Developmental State Theory. The theory identifies the state with the bureaucracy; the strong bureaucracy wields power and guides society to develop the nation's capacity; other political/governmental institutions, including the National Diet, are largely overlooked in the theory. In contrast, the resilient inflow of ex-bureaucrats to the Diet throughout the postwar period will shed light upon the nature of Japanese governance where politicians and bureaucrats closely collaborate and influence each other. All in all, this dissertation project will ultimately address the nature of Japanese governance, where the key to understanding not only 'the Japanese Miracle' in the past but the future of Japanese politics lies.