Prosepects of Japan's Political Reforms

Revisiting the past, we could see the Japan only had two major political reforms namely the 1889 Meiji Constitution and the 1947 Peace Constitution. Compared to other countries Japan has the least number of political reforms or revise in the constitution. Why so? Because for the Japanese, undergoing a major change in the constitution may mean admitting that there really is something wrong with their political system. The Japanese are serious when it comes to honor they are also quite disciplined that is why they try to always make their constitution work no matter what comes.

The LDP or the Liberal Democratic Party has ruled for decades and is currently the ruling party although in the 90s they were out of their thrown. The LDP again reigned supreme again after a decade. The LDP had shaped Japan to what it is now, having one of the strongest economy in the world, however, through the running years, a lot of factions have merged the LDP making it enormous and stronger. The downside is that they have different perspectives and goals as well what binds them together is their similar goals and that is to make thier candidates win.

The prospects of political reforms in Japan today can be related to article 9 of the Japanese Constitution which prevents them from joining any military activity. Japan also doesn't have it's own military force. They only have the self defense force which are limited due to article 9 and so they rely on the United States to protect them even from their neighboring country such as North Korea. Politicians would want reform because they are growing tiresome of not being able to defend themselves against any threat. For them their country is still dependent on other countries when it comes to neutralizing any threat. They want to become a "normal country." And for Japan to become a "Normal Country" they must implement significant economic and political reform.

It is a fight between patriotism and nationalism. Some argue that patriotism is not necessarily nationalism. The Japanese are on the lookout for a normal nation possessing a national anthem and a national flag. However, others would argue that nationalism runs profound among the Japanese and their pacifism is due more to their humiliating defeat during the second World War. As a nation, Japan's deeds have not conformed to its words regarding pacifism which many view more as a catalyst of foreign policy than genuine moral principle. Japan whether they're going to see a revival of militarism is insignificant because Japan needs only to become a "normal" nation pursuig a rational foreign policy, for it to become engaged to war. As a normal nation, Japan's capability to prepare for war is great.

LDP's Reign

It is seemingly quite noticeable that the Liberal Democratic Party or the LDP is always reigning even though most voters have developed a feeling of opposition and hatred against this political party. Wouldn't it be too obvious that if the people hated the LDP, then the other opposing political parties would have dominated? In this case it is different. Even if the people hated the Liberal Democratic Party, there are factors that makes the LDP reign supreme against the opposition. The seemingly unpopular ruling party makes the competition of party in Japan a failure. Even though the LDP had few supporters, they still manage to dominate the competition. So what accounts for LDP's longevity?

The LDP's key to success was the presence of strong candidates. In addition to that, in Japan the opposition tend to have weak candidates and that the opposition has a weakness in ruling the subnational level and that seems to be their underlying problem. The LDP's success depend not solely on the party but on the candidates that make up the party, which means that the quality of the LDP is greater than that of the opposing parties. Their strong candidates compensate for the bad reputation of the party and that is the reason why the LDP is still standing even though a lot of Japanese voters hate this party.

The challenge is still on and the LDP is still at its reign. It has served the country for decades which is a deciding factor because this has cultivated Japan the way it is right now. They have been growing in a stable manner.

What accounts for LDP's Longevity? It is quite simple. The candidates of LDP make sure that they can achieve all of their goals even though it is simple as constructing a bridge or making a stand against bullying. Their strong candidates make up for the bad reputation of their party and so they have ruled the Japanese political governance for many decades.

Impediments to Constitutional Revision

The Meiji Restoration Period is one of the turning point in Japan's history which started the country's militaristic nature. There were also tremendous changes in Japan's political and social structure. The Restoration made Japan an Imperial Power with accelerated industrialization and with its slogan "enrich the country and strengthen the military." Japan with its militaristic nature, engaged in international conflicts such as World War I and World War II. After World War II, Japan had a transition from a militaristic state towards a pacifist state. The new constitution made after World War II was called the "Peace Constitution" which was drawn by the allied forces intended to replace Japan's preceding militaristic absolute monarchy system with a form of liberal democracy. The Peace Constitution prevented Japan from waging war and limited Japan only with the so-called Self Defense Force (SDF).

However, it wasn't after a few decades after world war II that more Japanese are realizing that the time has come to revise the part of the constitution that prevents them from using military forces in settling international disputes due to the growing tension in the region. Japan is concerned with the super power China and its state of the art arms and expenditures on military. The government of Japan cannot just ignore the growing tension. They also have had enough with North Korea, kidnapping Japanese people and launching missiles at Japan. The government of Japan is working on revising article 9 of the constitution which renounces the right of war. On the other hand, Japanese who had experience the damage of World War II thinks that revising article 9 of the constitution would go against their freedom and that they would just be following trends from the United States in confronting and intervening with international disputes.

The constitution cannot be revised easily due to underlying number of processes to be made and due to the counter arguments that are being given by Japanese opposing the revision and are against the idea of Japan breaking free from the limitations of its military which could possibly create future conflicts. Such impediments to constitutional revision prevents Japan from removing its military limitations.

A Symbolism (Rashomon and Japanese Politics)

The Japanese political system is said to be admirable to the foreign eyes. Japan is a constitutional democracy and some believed that the Japanese system should be stimulated. However, they were unaware of the true conduct of Japanese politics. Even though the Japanese had a strong tradition of group cohesiveness which led to strong nationalism, we cannot avoid a realist principle that each individual has their own interests and that each would give importance to itself first than others. In other words there is independence among groups.

Rashomon is Japanese film by Akira Kurosawa, which depicts the story of a woman who was raped and her husband murdered. The story went through with an detective seeking out the truth behind the mutual contradictory perspectives of the different characters involved or are witnesses in the crime, which are the woodcutter, the travelling Buddhist priest, the bandit, the samurai through a medium and the samurai’s wife.

The various perspectives in the Rashomon story correspond to the three employment classes in Japan. The metaphor is relevant to the three segments which are history, culture and politics, which compel the Japanese economic, political and social policies. Repression in the Japanese government or in other words misleading the people from the truth in order to keep their honor and to pursue their own interests is portrayed by the character the “woodcutter” in Rashomon.

Inspiration

The ability to adhere to an appointed time, punctuality, could be one of the foundation of why we should compare politics. There is a concept of punctuality which only exists in the Philippines and that is what we call "Filipino Time." A good example for explaining this concept is that when person A and person B decided to meet each other at a certain time, they would almost always arrive an hour or thirty minutes late. Comparing it with the punctuality of people in Japan, it would turn out to be quite different. In Japan people are punctual. They value time as much as they value themselves. If for instance there is an event to attend to, people would always arrive 10-30 minutes early. Most of the people don't value time in the Philippines, on the contrary, people in Japan value time and thus they are punctual people. The idea is also similar in comparing politics.

We need to compare politics because of the fact that there are always differences in every country. There are developed countries and developing countries. There are also different forms of rule which may be good or corrupt. These concepts could serve as a guide for developing countries especially the Philippines. Mistakes of other countries could be avoided and also transitions could also be based from the results of comparing politics. Through studying the system of one's own government and comparing it with other governments, we could determine what decisions to make and do the appropriate actions.

So why do we need to study Japan politics? As we all know, today, Japan is one of the powerful and well developed states in Asia. After the second World War, the country was devastated. A few decades later, they rose from the ashes and started to grow at a rapid manner. Comparing their situation with the Philippines, Japan is quite an impressive country because of their recovery. Because of that we should consider Japan as a role model for our country. Their discipline and nationalism is unlike any other. The reason why the Philippines is still a developing country is because the people lack discipline and nationalism and so we should take in consideration their political system and how it works. It serves as an example for us to follow so that hopefully in the future the Philippines would also become a developed country, Japan as an inspiration.