ABSTRACT
The policymaking process was fairly consistent in the 1955 system of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) dominance. It has experienced some change since the 1990s due to electoral reform, administrative reform, and structural reform. This chapter focuses on the role and interactions of the key actors in the policymaking process. These actors include the bureaucracy, politicians, and interest groups. The courts have played a more limited role. Building on the overview of the policymaking process, the chapter considers policy issues concerning women and immigration. These policy issue areas illustrate how structures provide opportunities and constraints for policy innovation. The chapter addresses how and why the salience of these issues has changed over time. It then discusses a set of different policies related to the workplace as well as Japan's aging, low fertility society. The chapter also considers the goal of increasing women in the workplace and how to achieve this goal as well as an alternative to the labor issue-immigration.
