ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how local partisans in public office challenge a national government under control of another party. It provides an overview of multi-level relations under the three years of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) administration and descriptive quantitative data on local written opinions (WOs) for national policies under the DPJ, comparing it with those under Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) administrations. The chapter focuses on some key cases of multi-level conflict in three categories: those that involved redistributive matters to rural regions in general; region-specific issues such as public works and nuclear power plants; and other policy initiatives which do not directly affect territorial interests. To compare multi-level interactions under the DPJ administration, the chapter focuses on WOs expressing local government positions against national policy. The chapter discusses five different instances of multi-level conflict: making highway tolls free, unifying petitions, and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP); Yamba dam; and granting foreigners voting rights.
