PLCP 553: JAPANESE POLITICS (Spring 2009)
  TR 2:00-3:15 in Cabell 139

Prof. Len Schoppa
Office: Cabell 148 (tel: 924-3211)
Hrs: T & R 3:30 – 5:00 (or appt)
e-mail: schoppa@virginia.edu

In the period since World War II, Japan has become an increasingly important American ally and rival--at once our partner in preserving the postwar international economic and political system and a source of vigorous economic competition. Up until recently, we were concerned that the nation's manufacturing prowess would lead to the deindustrialization of America.  More recently, we have worried that economic stagnation there could bring the global economy to a grinding halt.  Either way, it is clearly vital that Americans take time out to further our understanding of this nation. Are Japan and its government somehow different from Western norms in ways that explain its past success and/or its recent failures?  Are there still elements of the Japanese model that we should try to emulate?  Or are there elements that we need to force Japan to change in order to mitigate their negative effects on the global economy and our own nation's economic welfare?  These are just some of the questions we will explore and discuss during this course.

The course is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the emergence and consolidation of Japan’s “1955 System,” a stable political and economic order that began with the formation of the Liberal Democratic Party in that year and ended with the split of that long-dominant party in 1993. While much of the focus in this section will be on the electoral and party politics of this era, we will take time to examine how this political regime was rooted in a distinct social, cultural, economic, and international context. After the midterm, we will shift our attention to the post-1993 disorder of a political and economic regime in transition, looking at how economic, social, and political changes have disrupted the old regime and propelled an awkward transition to something new. A close look at Japan’s period of transition will help us better understand why Japan was stuck for almost 15 years in a dangerous deflationary slump and seemingly unable to muster the courage to change the way it does business. At the same time, it will give us an appreciation for how Japan’s experience is just one example of a broader process going on across the world in which socio-economic change is disrupting regimes rooted in stable social coalitions, reinforced by established political institutions and rules. The course covers Japan's foreign and security policies only in passing because these are covered in two courses I teach in alternating springs: PLIR 203 (International Relations of East Asia) and PLIR 572 (Japan in World Affairs).

PRIMARY READINGS:

Large parts of the following books, available at the University Bookstore, will be assigned. In addition, starred (*) items from the reading list will be available in the resources section of the Collab site for this class. Graduate students may wish to purchase additional books that are required reading for grads only, but because of limited numbers, these were not ordered through the University Bookstore.

Jacob Schlesinger, Shadow Shoguns (Stanford University Press, 1999)

J. Mark Ramseyer and Frances Rosenbluth, Japan’s Political Marketplace (Harvard University Press, 1993)

Gerald Curtis, The Logic of Japanese Politics (Columbia University Press, 1999)

Leonard Schoppa, Race for the Exits: The Unraveling of Japan’s System of Social Protection (Cornell University Press, 2006)

REQUIREMENTS:

This course requires students to take a midterm, write a literature-review paper, and complete a take-home essay exam, with each of these three components worth 30% of the final grade.  The in-class midterm, based on lectures and the readings up to that point, is scheduled for March 17. The 12 to 15-page literature-review paper, due April 23, can be on any topic related to Japan's politics or policy.  Periodic deadlines for choosing topics and submitting bibliographies for the paper during the course of the term are set up to make sure procrastination does not lead to poor performance (or the temptation to plagiarize) on this paper assignment. Details on the paper assignment are available off a link from the web-version of the syllabus. Just click here. The paper must be based on library research that goes well beyond readings assigned for class, as well as web resources. The take-home essay exam, covering lectures and readings in the second half of the semester, will be due May 1. The final 10% of your grade will be based on participation—both at scheduled discussion times and at other times, when you are expected to interrupt, ask questions, and bring up current events relevant to what we are covering in class.

SCHEDULE AND ASSIGNMENTS

INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE (1/15)

PART I: THE “1955 SYSTEM”

1. LEGACY OF HISTORY (No Class on Innauguration Day; 1/22 & 27)

*J.A.A. Stockwin, Governing Japan (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999): 10-22, 36-53.

Grad students only. Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982): 3-197.

2. THE VICTORY OF THE LDP IN LEFT-RIGHT “CAMP CONFLICT” (1/29)

*T.J. Pempel, Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998): 81-110.

3. THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC BARGAIN UNDERGIRDING THE LDP’S HOLD ON POWER (2/3 & 2/10)

Schlesinger, Shadow Shoguns, 11-227.

EVENING SHOWING OF “SENKYO” ON FEBRUARY 3 (IN PLACE OF CLASS ON FEB 5) 

4. THE CULTURAL ROOTS OF THE LDP-DOMINANT REGIME (2/12)

*Seymour Martin Lipset, “American Exceptionalism—Japanese Uniqueness,” in his American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword (New York: W.W. Norton, 1996): 211-263.

Students Must Visit Prof. Schoppa in his office and Choose Literature Review Paper Topics by 2/12.

5. THE ELECTORAL ROOTS OF THE LDP-DOMINANT REGIME (2/17 and 19)

Ramseyer and Rosenbluth, Japan’s Political Marketplace, 1-98.

6. BUREAUCRATIC POLITICS UNDER THE “1955 SYSTEM” (2/24 and 26)

Ramseyer and Rosenbluth, Japan’s Political Marketplace, 99-201.

Grad students only. Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle, pp. 198-324.

7. INTEREST GROUPS AND CITIZEN'S MOVEMENTS UNDER THE “1955 SYSTEM” (3/10)

*Frank Schwartz, "Amending Japan's Labor Constitution: Revision of the Labor Standards Act," Advice and Consent (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998): 116-163.
*Susan Pharr, Losing Face (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990): 15-38.

8. THE SYSTEM THAT PRODUCED THE ECONOMIC MIRACLE (3/12)

Schoppa, Race for the Exits, 36-66.

MIDTERM: MARCH 17

PART II: THE COLLAPSE OF THE “1955 SYSTEM”

1. SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHANGE CHALLENGES THE ESTABLISHED REGIME (3/19 & 24)

Curtis, The Logic of Japanese Politics, 25-136.

Schoppa, Race for the Exits, 1-16 and 67-97.
*OTAKE Hideo, "Political Realignment and Policy Conflict," in Otake, ed., Power Shuffles and Policy Processes (Tokyo: JCIE, 2000): 125-151.

Grad students only: Ethan Scheiner, Democracy Without Competition in Japan (Cambridge University Press, 2006), all.

2. ELECTORAL REFORM: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES (3/26 & 31)

*Steven R. Reed and Michael Thies, “The Causes of Electoral Reform,” in Matthew Shugart and Martin Wattenberg, eds., Mixed-Member Electoral Systems: The Best of Both Worlds? (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001): 152-172.

*Ellis S. Krauss and Robert Pekkanen, “Explaining Party Adaptation to Electoral Reform: The Discreet Charm of the LDP?” Journal of Japanese Studies 30:1 (Winter 2004): 1-34.

*Margarita Estevez-Abe, “Japan’s Shift Toward a Westminster System: A Structural Analysis of the 2005 Lower House Election and its Aftermath,” Asian Survey 46:4 (July/August 2006): 632-651.

Second Stage of Paper Project Must Be Complete by 3/31.  Students should have submitted bibliographies and outlines for their papers and gone over these with Prof. Schoppa in a second meeting in his office.

3. THE “BUBBLE ECONOMY” AND ITS AFTERMATH (4/2)

*R. Taggart Murphy, “Chapter 7: Coping with Endaka: Japan’s Bubble Economy,” in The Weight of the Yen (New York: W.W. Norton, 1996), pp. 195-218.

4. THE ABSENCE OF AN EFFECTIVE ECONOMIC POLICY RESPONSE (4/7 & 9)

Schoppa, Race for the Exits, 98-149.

*Steven Vogel, “Can Japan Disengage? Winners and Losers in Japan’s Political Economy, and the Ties that Bind Them,” Social Science Japan Journal 2:1 (April 1999): 3-21.

Grad students only: Steven Vogel, Japan Remodeled: How Government and Industry are Reforming Japanese Capitalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006), all.

5. SOCIAL POLICY DURING JAPAN’S TRANSITION PERIOD (4/14)

Schoppa, Race for the Exits, 150-212.

6. SECURITY POLICY DURING JAPAN’S TRANSITION PERIOD (4/16)

*Tomohito Shinoda, “Koizumi’s Top-Down Leadership in the Anti-Terrorism Legislation: The Impact of Political Institutional Changes,” SAIS Review 23:1 (.Winter-Spring 2003): 19-34.

7 ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CRISIS IN JAPAN TODAY (4/21 & 23)

*Reading TBA.

Literature Review Paper Due, April 23.

8. WRAP-UP REVIEW AND DISCUSSION (4/28)

Take-home Essay Question Distributed, April 28.

Take-home Essays Due, May 1. Please turn them into Prof. Schoppa’s office by 4 pm on this date.

PROF. SCHOPPA's CLASS RULES

1. MISSED TESTS: You should notify me before the midterm if, for some reason, you will not be able to make it on that date. Permission will only be given in exceptional cases, and make-ups will be scheduled either before or after the regularly scheduled date--at professor's convenience.

2. LATE PAPERS: The final grade on the paper/project will be docked one letter for every day it is late unless the delay has been approved by me (based on a very good reason) at least a week before the due date. Last minute computer problems are not an excuse!!! Back-up your work on disks to avoid losing it, and leave time for you to deal with last minute hitches (like a broken printer, a computer virus, a line in the computer lab) by aiming to finish well before the deadline.

3. PLAGIARISM: Using someone else's words or ideas without attribution constitutes an offense of "plagiarism" that is grounds for expulsion under the University's Honor System. If you are using more than four words in a row that are identical to those in another source, you should put them in quotation marks and cite the source of the quotation. If you refer to a fact (e.g. statistical data; historical details) or idea that is not “general knowledge,” you should identify the source, including the page number, from which this fact or idea is drawn. I consider something to be “general knowledge” if I could easily find this “fact” in three different published sources. For example, many sources tell us Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492, so you would not need to cite this date.