Politics in Japan

This DIJ project was dedicated to scholarly research on issues of Japanese politics and administration current in the late 1990s. Developments inside the political system and in Japan's foreign relations, especially the reform efforts in the course of the structural crisis, were examined from the perspective of several disciplines present at the institute. In this context, Verena Blechinger and Ralph Lützeler also examined the reform of the electoral system of the House of Representatives.

The process of political reform and its results were the central topic of an international conference under the title "Political Reform in Japan – Entering a New Era of Japanese Democracy?" organized by Verena Blechinger which took place in July 1998 in Tokyo. Four panels, dealing with the electoral system, party restructuring, political finance and administrative reform, analysed and evaluated the measures taken so far. Among the participants were journalists and Japanese politicians.