Japense Government Essay, Research Paper

Japanese Government Vs American Government

In this report I will compare and contrast Japans Executive Branch to the American Executive Branch, such as the Japanese Prime Minister to the American President, and also some of the other offices of the Cabinet. The Japanese government isn’t all that much different than that of which we Americans have. Both countries have an executive leader, which is the Japanese Prime Minister, and of course the American President. Both countries also have a constitution, the Japanese was not written by choice though, but written under General MacArthur’s supervision in 1946 following their surrender in World War II, when an Occupation Government was also set up for them, most likely not by choice. Their constitution is almost identical to ours because it states that political power rests with the people, and also starts out the same as ours by saying; We, the Japanese People. Both countries have a legislature, which theirs is called the “National Diet.” The two countries have a whole different structure of government. In America we directly elect our president by a vote through the whole country, which isn’t what it is like in Japan. In Japan it goes through this system; 1st the voters of Japan elect the Diet, or what we would call the legislature, which consists of the house of representatives, and the house of counselors. The diet then chooses a Prime Minister, or president, which the House of Representatives can dismiss him, within a certain reason. After these processes, the Prime Minister then appoints the Cabinet, which exercises the executive power in the Central Government. In the diet, there are 512 members of the House of Representatives, chosen from 130 election districts, with one exception elects from 3 to 5 representatives. Each voter has one vote, but 3 to 5 candidates who receive the largest amount of votes are elected, and serve for 4 years unless the parliament is dissolved before the term expires. The house of Counselors consists of 252 members who are chosen for 6-year terms, where they most likely will serve their full term. Twelve members of the cabinet preside over departments or ministries of the government, which include the ministries of justice, foreign affairs, finance, education, health and welfare, agriculture and forestry, and labor. The remaining cabinet members are the so-called “ministers of the state,” which include the deputy prime minister and heads of various agencies such as the economic planning agency and the science and technology agency. Most of the time a minister will only remain in office for only one year, because of the high turnover in the cabinet. Bureaucrats provide the diet with the expert knowledge required for long term planning, which is commonly emphasized in Japan. Japan has a multiparty system in which one party, the Liberal Democratic Party, has been dominant since it was founded in 1955. They also have left opposition parties. The leading opposition party is the Japanese Socialist party that has constantly held more than 100 seats in the Diet. The second opposition group on the left is the Japanese communist party, a legal party that has held less than 10 percent of the seats in the diet. The third and last opposition party is the Komei, or “clean government party.” Its objective is to purify Japanese politics and improve the quality of life in Japan.