Japanese politics and policies towards China with comparisons to American politics.

摘要

The central questions of this dissertation are: Is Japan an authoritarian regime or a pluralistic democracy? If it is a pluralistic state, what kind of pluralism is it? Is it similar to "American pluralism?" This study contains four case studies, three on Japanese politics: (1) Japan's protectionism of raw silk importation since 1974, (2) the 1972 Sino-Japanese rapprochement, and (3) the four Japan-China economic agreements in 1974-1975; and one on American politics: the 1979 U.S.-China Trade Agreement. It examines Japan's political "tripod": the longtime ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP), the bureaucracy, and big business (interest groups). The study explores the nature of Japanese politics, namely how the Japanese pluralist process works, and tries to determine which force, if any, plays a greater role.; From this study, one can see that Japanese politics is, in a relative sense, pluralist. The monopoly of policy-making by the bureaucracy has been broken. Both the ruling party and interest groups have increased their influence tremendously. It is not too early to assume that the influential role of the LDP vis-a-vis the bureaucracy in contemporary Japanese politics has not only emerged but become entrenched.; Nevertheless, Japanese politics has its own norm, namely " informal" pluralism. This system, in fact, is very close to the Western democracies. Compared to pluralism in the United States, however, Japan's "informal pluralism" is less institutionalized, more irregular and ambiguous. The differences between the two, therefore, are mainly in style, and method, as well as in degrees of pluralism in the two societies. On the one hand, one can regard this " informal pluralism" as less developed or still in the process of development. On the other hand, however, this is indeed Japan's own pattern and pace for development. As Japan's economy further develops, its society will advance continually in the direction of pluralism. Thus, one can conclude that "informal pluralism" and the influential role of the LDP vis-a-vis the bureaucratic power will be two distinguishing characteristics of Japan's political life for a long time to come. The "informal pluralism" model may have broad implications to other states in the East Asian area, to the making of public policy, and finally, to international relations as a whole.