ABSTRACT
It is not quite true, of course, that management is the only sphere of activity considered, or that it is presented in isolation from other aspects of the entity called ‘Japan’. Many writers present cultural explanations of Japanese managerial practice, while others cite a variety of institutional and historical factors which have contributed to the system developing as it has. In particular the way the economy is managed is held up as worthy of emulation, though differences of opinion can be seen in the literature concerning the question how far the government ‘manages’ the economy and how far the economy manages itself. 1
One area, however, which in this context has been paid relatively little attention is that of politics and the political system. To some extent there is a sense in the literature on Japan as a model that politics is an epiphenomenon, in that political change, such at it is, makes little difference to the really important questions. These questions tend to be defined in terms of the functioning of the economy and the character of management practices. Implicit in this approach is
the view that politics in Japan scarcely matters in its own terms, but is some kind of holding operation enabling the bureaucrats and economic managers to get on with the work of notching up ever more impressive economic successes. 2
The purpose of this article is to attempt in a necessarily preliminary fashion to come to grips with the question how far the politics of Japan (and more broadly the political system) deserves to be studied specifically for the lessons it can teach that might be of relevance to the politics of other countries. Just as it is hardly possible to examine the economy in complete isolation from its political context, so also we cannot study politics without also being fully aware of the close interaction between the actions of politicians and the broader social and economic order. Nevertheless, we believe that it is worth while extracting the political aspect of Japan for independent scrutiny, because though part of a larger whole, it has both interesting peculiarities and a crucial importance within the larger context.
