ABSTRACT
During the 30-year Heisei period, 18 prime ministers held office in Japan, with more than half serving a year or less. At the start of Heisei, the short tenure of Japan's prime minister attracted little academic interest or public concern. The prime minister's policy influence was considered weak relative to policymaking by Japan's bureaucracy and by policy tribes within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). But economic stagnation from the early 1990s put pressure on Japan's existing power structures. At the same time, developments in political communications and the erosion of cleavage-based politics placed greater emphasis on political leadership and intensified the mediatizing of Japanese election campaigns. This chapter examines the changing role and expectations of the Japanese prime minister between 1989 and 2019. It argues that despite growing public demands for prime ministerial predominance in the policymaking process, strong leadership has been in short supply. In analyzing the causes and consequences of Japan's continuing leadership deficit, the chapter concludes that many of the reforms designed to strengthen the prime minister's role have ironically created new difficulties.
