Japan’s local governance at the crossroads: the third wave of reform

Local governance today is a contested issue worldwide. In the 1990s local or sub-national governance gained greater salience under the forces of globalisation, technological advancement, deregulation and administrative reform - all of which present enormous challenges to local communities and the ways in which they can be governed effectively. Calls for reform of Japan’s political system have featured prominently throughout the 1990s, as rhetoric and, to a limited extent, as policy. In Japan’s highly centralised political system, local governments have struggled for autonomy from the national government. The reform movement of the 1990s has done more than simply advance the push for greater local autonomy. It has forced local governments to begin improving their performance while taking greater responsibility for local affairs. Unlike in earlier periods, reforms from the 1990s have been simultaneously top down and bottom up

Japan’s local governance at the crossroads: the third wave of reform

Local governance today is a contested issue worldwide. In the 1990s local or sub-national governance gained greater salience under the forces of globalisation, technological advancement, deregulation and administrative reform - all of which present enormous challenges to local communities and the ways in which they can be governed effectively. Calls for reform of Japan’s political system have featured prominently throughout the 1990s, as rhetoric and, to a limited extent, as policy. In Japan’s highly centralised political system, local governments have struggled for autonomy from the national government. The reform movement of the 1990s has done more than simply advance the push for greater local autonomy. It has forced local governments to begin improving their performance while taking greater responsibility for local affairs. Unlike in earlier periods, reforms from the 1990s have been simultaneously top down and bottom up

Japan and Australia: Strengthening Partnership in the Indo-Pacific Era

After many decades of a relationship defined primarily by commercial ties, Japan and Australia now have a robust security and defence partnership. While making their bilateral relations more all-rounded in the Indo-Pacific era, they also aim to promote a regional order where the United States remains engaged and like-minded nations come together to manage the ever-volatile strategic environment in the wake of China’s rise and US–China strategic rivalry. These tasks are not easy due to strategic complexities; how the two key Indo-Pacific nations respond to each other and to their partners in managing the China challenge while ensuring US commitment to the region will be of deep interest to policymakers and analysts alike

Twin Peaks: Japan’s Economic Aid to India in the 1950s and 2010s

This paper concerns the significance of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in Japan’s relationship with India. It explores how and why peaks in Japan’s ODA to India parallel the two highpoints in the overall bilateral relationship – the early post-war period (roughly to the early1960s), and the present (from the mid-2000s). It argues that whatever other purposes Japan’s ODA may serve domestically and internationally through supporting economic development, in the program with India ODA has politico-strategic utility in signaling not just to India, but also to the rest of Asia and beyond, Japan’s interest in strengthening this bilateral relationship to gain leverage in Asia. Early in the post-war period, collaboration with India was seen to provide an entry point for the development of primarily commercial relations with Southeast Asia and other Asian nations while lingering concerns about Japan’s wartime incursions supported resistance to other approaches. Currently, while positioned as Japan’s special strategic and global partner, and enjoying an ever more powerful economy, India helps open the way for Japan to extend strategic leverage within Asia and beyond. This is significant for Japan at a time when regional transformation, especially through China’s rise, is becoming instrumental in reshaping the regional and global balance of power, causing Japan great strategic and economic concerns along the way

Twin Peaks: Japan’s Economic Aid to India in the 1950s and 2010s

This paper concerns the significance of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in Japan’s relationship with India. It explores how and why peaks in Japan’s ODA to India parallel the two highpoints in the overall bilateral relationship – the early post-war period (roughly to the early1960s), and the present (from the mid-2000s). It argues that whatever other purposes Japan’s ODA may serve domestically and internationally through supporting economic development, in the program with India ODA has politico-strategic utility in signaling not just to India, but also to the rest of Asia and beyond, Japan’s interest in strengthening this bilateral relationship to gain leverage in Asia. Early in the post-war period, collaboration with India was seen to provide an entry point for the development of primarily commercial relations with Southeast Asia and other Asian nations while lingering concerns about Japan’s wartime incursions supported resistance to other approaches. Currently, while positioned as Japan’s special strategic and global partner, and enjoying an ever more powerful economy, India helps open the way for Japan to extend strategic leverage within Asia and beyond. This is significant for Japan at a time when regional transformation, especially through China’s rise, is becoming instrumental in reshaping the regional and global balance of power, causing Japan great strategic and economic concerns along the way

Japan's Local Governance at the Crossroads: The Third Wave of Reform

Local governance today is a contested issue worldwide. In the 1990s local or sub-national governance gained greater salience under the forces of globalisation, technological advancement, deregulation and administrative reform - all of which present enormous challenges to local communities and the ways in which they can be governed effectively. Calls for reform of Japan’s political system have featured prominently throughout the 1990s, as rhetoric and, to a limited extent, as policy. In Japan’s highly centralised political system, local governments have struggled for autonomy from the national government. The reform movement of the 1990s has done more than simply advance the push for greater local autonomy. It has forced local governments to begin improving their performance while taking greater responsibility for local affairs. Unlike in earlier periods, reforms from the 1990s have been simultaneously top down and bottom up.

Local political leadership in Japan: a harbinger of systematic change in Japanese politics?

Copyright © 2004 Policy and Society Associates (APSS) Published by Elsevier Ltd.Observers of Japanese politics have generally assumed that because Japan is a unitary state, local government and its political chief executives have very little political and policy autonomy. Yet the assumption that a high degree of centralization in the political structure prevents leadership at the local level is misguided. Three case studies demonstrate that local chief executives from the peripheries are now more than ever demonstrating leadership at the local level. Local chief executives are increasingly challenging central government plans and policy priorities for local areas by setting policy agendas to follow their own vision and local needs, rather than accepting the center's fiat. Using the typology of transactional and transformational styles of leadership, this article argues that trends observed in some localities may be the harbinger of transformational leadership from the local level, as local government takes a more salient place in Japan's political system.Purnendra Jainhttp://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/714836/description#descriptio