How Japanese PMS Got So Powerful
Shinzo Abe’s recent re-election as head of Japan’s governing LDP opens up the possibility, should he last to 2021, that he will become the country’s longestserving prime minister. Abe’s success reflects the weakness of Japan’s opposition parties, his own tactical astuteness, and, importantly, increased institutional power of the prime minister’s office. Aurelia George Mulgan, of the University of New South Wales, provides one of the most exhaustive studies to date in English of this. Using a wealth of Japanese sources, she traces the gradual centralization of prime ministerial power from Yasuhiro Nakasone in the 1980s through Ryutaro Hashimoto and Junichiro Koizumi to the present.
The growth in a prime ministerial executive has been shaped by the decline in factional politics (due to changes to the Lower House’s electoral system), the weakening of party policy-making in the LDP, the increased role of specialist advisers, and the prime minister’s use of modern media to go directly to the public. For some leaders, such as Koizumi, this reflected a distinctly presidential style; for others, such as Abe, it involves reliance on party and cabinet. Centralization and institutional change have strengthened Japan’s political executive and arguably enhanced decision-making, but also raised legitimate questions of accountability and transparency.
She traces the gradual centralization of prime ministerial power from the 1980s to now.