ABSTRACT

First published in Papers on Modern Japan, 1965. Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University

JAPANESE POLITICS have often been characterised by weak leadership, despite a governmental system which in most periods has been highly centralized. In part, this is attributable to the recentness of a feudal age in which ‘clan’ loyalties predominated. This type of localized, affective loyalty, based in turn on a code of ethics which prescribed strong filial piety in a patrilineal, stemfamily system, is still very prevalent in the political structures of contemporary Japan.