Japanese Democracy and Lessons for the United States: Eight Counterintuitive Lessons

215 Pages·2020·2.433 MB·English

by  Ray Christensen

Japanese Democracy and Lessons for the
United States
This book presents a collection of lessons on how best to run elections and
politics, using examples from the Japanese experience and showing how elec-
tions operate in a non-Western democracy.
Featuring extensive data and evidence from both Japan and the United
States, the themes covered include one-party rule, ballot security and voting
procedures, election regulations, malapportionment and gerrymandering,
court interventions, voter attachments, and distortions of the public will by
election rules. In so doing, the analysis challenges conventional wisdom in
both Japan and the United States, highlighting surprising and counterintui-
tive findings from decades of observation. This book also explicitly compares
Japan to other, similarly situated democracies. Japan is therefore not treated
as a standalone case but, rather, the lessons from Japan are contextualized for
greater understanding and can be used to inform discussions about compara-
tive elections and democracy.
Offering practical advice in relation to elections and the functions of democ-
racy, Japanese Democracy and Lessons for the United States will be useful to
students and scholars of Japanese, US, and comparative politics.
Ray Christensen is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Brigham
Young University, USA. His research focuses on aspects of Japanese elections
including gender issues, gerrymandering, malapportionment, corruption, and
electoral alliances.
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Japanese Democracy and Lessons for the United States
Eight Counterintuitive Lessons
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Edited by Stephen McCarthy and Mark R. Thompson
For the full list of titles in the series, visit: www.routledge.com/Politics-in-Asia/
book-series/PIA
Japanese Democracy and
Lessons for the United States
Eight Counterintuitive Lessons
Ray Christensen
First published 2020
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Ray Christensen
The right of Ray Christensen to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or
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are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Christensen, Ray, 1960- author.
Title: Japanese democracy and lessons for the United States : eight counterintuitive lessons / Ray
Christensen.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019049370 (print) | LCCN 2019049371 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Elections–Japan. | Elections–United States. | Democracy–Japan. |
Democracy–United States. | Japan–Politics and government–1945- |
United States–Politics and government–1989-
Classification: LCC JQ1692 .C57 2020 (print) | LCC JQ1692 (ebook) | DDC 324.60952–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019049370
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019049371
ISBN: 978-0-367-44005-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-00862-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Swales & Willis, Exeter, Devon, UK
Contents
List of figures vi
List of tables vii
1 Introduction 1
2 One-party rule 6
3 Campaign regulations 25
4 Drawing the boundaries of election districts 44
5 Supreme Courts and election procedures 72
6 Corruption 100
7 Democracy and political instability 123
8 Acceptance of election results 171
9 Conclusion 200
Index 202
Figures
4.1 Population deviation of election districts from a national average 52
4.2 Deviation in votes cast from a national average 53
5.1 Ratio of the most malapportioned Japanese election districts at
election day 89
5.2 Conservative votes in prefectures by levels of malapportionment,
Japan 1958–2017 91
6.1 Distribution of margins of victory in Japan, Canada, and the
United States 108
6.2 Margins of victory in Japan, by political party 109
6.3 Margins of victory in Canada, by political party 109
6.4 Margins of victory in the United States, by political party 110
7.1 Comparative vote percentages for the LDP and the Socialist/
Democratic opposition 127
7.2 Electoral volatility in Japan 129
7.3 Party switching and volatility compared, in Japan 131
7.4 Prime minister/presidential approval ratings in Japan and the
United States 133
7.5 Variation in approval ratings for one-year periods in Japan and
the United States with the same prime minister or president 134
7.6 Highs and lows in approval rating for Japanese prime ministers 134
7.7 Unaffiliated voters (yearly averages) in Japan and the United
States, 1947–2019 137
7.8 Average turnout in rural and urban Japan, 1958–2017 139
7.9 The percentage increase in turnout explained by making an
election district 10 percent more rural, 1958–2017 140
7.10 Comparing changes in turnout for rural and urban Japan 141
8.1 All democratic reversals 187
8.2 Governments elected by a minority of voters 188
8.3 Largest party not in government 189
8.4 Change in government inconsistent with party popularity 190
Tables
4.1 Redistricting rules in five democracies 51
4.2 Average deviations from the ideal district, population, and votes 52
4.3 A hypothetical redistricting in Ohio, using Japanese rules 63
4.4 Possible division of three Ohio counties with large populations 65
6.1 Predicted and actual numbers of ultra-close races, by party in
Japan, Canada, and the United States 111
7.1 Troughs in Japanese prime minister approval ratings and party
responses to those troughs 135
7.2 National swing and muting of that swing for conservative
candidates in Japan 143
7.3 Dependent variable: district level turnout, Japanese House of
Representatives elections, 1958–2009 168
7.4 Dependent variable: vote share won by LDP candidates in district
elections in Japan’s 2003 House of Representatives election 169
7.5 Dependent variable: vote share won by Democratic candidates
in  district elections in Japan’s 2003 House of Representatives
election 170
7.6 Dependent variable: vote share won by Communist candidates
in  district elections in Japan’s 2003 House of Representatives
election 170
8.1 Consequential democratic reversals for selected countries 180

1 Introduction
Lesson 1: Countries should look to how other countries solve problems. In the
realm of campaigns and elections, Japan is the country with the system most
similar to the US system and provides many lessons and warnings for would-be
political reformers in the United States.
Ezra Vogel (1979) based his seminal work on the Japanese economic miracle
on the premise that the United States was remiss in not studying what other
countries do and learning from those examples. He contrasted American insu-
larity with the well-documented Japanese penchant to study the best from
abroad and adopt and modify those practices for a Japanese environment.
Forty years later, Vogel’s observations remain true. It is rare for US elites,
in any policy discussion, to examine or discuss how other nations deal with
similar problems. The only times other nations are brought into the discussion
are either as epithets to discredit an opponent’s position—socialized medicine
like they have in the UK, wait lists like they have in Canada—or as stylized
symbolic representations of a nirvana-like state—equality like they have in
Sweden, renewable energy like they have in Germany.
This book goes against the grain of expected discourse in two fundamental
ways. First, I suggest that Americans should study how democracy functions
in other countries as a way of informing and improving the functioning of
democracy in the United States. Second, and perhaps even more startling, is
my recommendation that the starting place for comparative study is Japan.
This second recommendation would be even more startling to a Japanese per-
son than to an American because the Japanese have long known that their
political system is corrupt and inferior to the better political systems in other
comparable democracies. In fact, the Japanese have a common saying that
their economics is first tier, but their politics is third tier. How then can I pos-
sibly suggest that there is anything that the United States can learn from the
Japanese example in the realm of politics?
A first response is to note that many lessons can be learned from another
example, both good and bad. Most of the lessons in this book are positive
examples, many aspects of democracy work well in Japan, and reformers in the
United States should consider emulating some of these practices. Some of the
lessons, though, are negative lessons, practices in Japan that don’t work well.