Organizer and Chair: David M. Potter, Northern Kentucky University
Discussant: Leonard Schoppa, University of Virginia
Mainstream accounts of Japanese politics concur that a few major interest groups, particularly big business, construction, and agricultural cooperatives, enjoy a degree of influence over policy making not found in other kinds of interest groups. Yet Japan has a vigorous interest group system in which groups of all persuasions and capabilities vie for influence and attention. This panel looks at groups usually considered less influential in Japanese politics. Some, like environmental groups and consumer movements, have been studied previously. Others, like non governmental organizations, have emerged as objects of study only recently.
The panel focuses on several issues important to understanding why these groups remain on the fringes of political power. The first major issue involves access: how do these groups seek access to policy makers, and does that affect their ability to influence policy? Second, do some of these groups enjoy better access to policy makers than others? If so, why is this the case? Are there structural barriers to entry into the policy making arena that are common to all policy areas? Third, have these groups had an impact on policy beyond specific grievances or concerns? In other words, not only have these groups gotten access to policy makers but do they present agendas that differ markedly from those of the policy makers they seek access to? If they do, to what extent do their agendas shape or change the debate over the issues policy makers are addressing?
Keiko Tabusa will consider why environmental groups have not been able to redefine "environmental protection" in Japan. Patricia MacLachlan will explore the possibility that consumer groups have been largely peripheral to the solution of consumer protection problems despite the fact that those solutions were championed by consumer groups themselves. David Potter will assess the ability of non governmental organizations to articulate an alternative model of development and what that means for NGO-government interactions. Elizabeth Heiman-Zagorodney will discuss American trade negotiators' manipulation of Japanese public opinion, heretofore deemed largely irrelevant to foreign policy making.
Keiko Tabusa, Australian National University
The paper argues that because of the serious health problem caused by unregulated industrial pollution in the 1950s and 60s and the general public demands for governmental regulation of environmentally hazardous industrial activities, Japan's environmental policies emphasize compensation of pollution victims and the improvement of the already damaged environment by strict pollution control. In order to enforce such control, the government encouraged the development of sophisticated pollution control technology. The close relationship between the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and industry made it easy for the two parties to cooperate in achieving that policy. As a result, Japan has the most stringent pollution control in the world in terms of permissible emissions of such air pollutants as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide.
A 1977 OECD report said that "Japan has won many pollution abatement battles, but has not yet won the war for environmental quality." Japan has an excellent record in controlling industrial pollution and promoting energy efficient and pollution free technology, but performs poorly in the preservation of the natural environment on the other. Since the publication of the report, the Japanese government has pursued environmental policies that emphasize the application of pollution control technology. More recently, Japan has become the major international player in the field of environmental protection with its strong support for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and the announcement of "environmental diplomacy" as a new foreign policy agenda. The "techno fix" approach, however, has been criticized by many international environmental organizations that promote the preservation of natural resources and environment.
The paper aims to explain why Japan's environmental policies have continued to emphasize technological solutions to domestic and global environmental problems. Why hasn't the scope of environmental policy formulation been expanded to incorporate the preservation of the natural environment? What has constrained it and how? And yet, why has the government decided to focus on environmental issues as a new diplomatic agenda? In order to answer these questions, I will first examine the domestic structures and processes of environmental policymaking and administration. I will analyze actors in the process, their perceptions of the environmental issue, their influence and the organization of environmental administration. Actors here include not only governmental actors and major interest groups but also grass roots environmental organizations, which have played an important role in promoting public awareness of the issue. I will also look at the impact of ideological conflicts between political parties and bureaucratic rivalries on political discussions of environmental issues. Finally I will discuss how these factors have affected the Japanese government's definition of environmental issues and consequently its policy decisions.
Patricia MacLachlan, Columbia University
This paper will assess the impact of private consumer groups on governmental decision making surrounding product liability since 1975. More specifically, I will argue that: l) shifts within the institutional context of consumer protection policy making rather than increased movement access to human and financial resources have been largely responsible for the ability of consumer groups to achieve their policy related goals, and 2) these institutional changes have occurred in tandem with the development of new ideas and value systems within the political community at large. In this way, I will show that despite all out efforts on the part of consumer groups to influence PL related policy making, ultimate policy decisions have occurred almost in spite of such activism.
From a theoretical point of view, I will argue that while various models falling under the rubric of "social movement theory" help explain the capacity of social movement organizations to mobilize human and financial resources, they must be supplemented by alternative perspectives in order to determine the impact of consumer groups on policy outputs. To this end, I will draw upon models generated by the historical institutional approach to policy making and show how the nature of and changes in Japan's institutional structures and power alliances have determined the relative impact of movement resources on decision making. I aim, in other words, for a more dynamic approach to social movements-one that emphasizes the role of ideas and the power alliances that buttress them in an effort to assess changes in the impact social movement organizations on policy making over time.
David M. Potter, Northern Kentucky University
The study of non governmental organizations has gained a great deal of popularity in recent years. Attention has focused on their ability to provide alternative views to state policies and their ability and willingness to deliver services to people beyond the reach of state programs. Yet there is a lack of scholarly research on NGOs in Japan. Despite a long history of public political organization and state interest in reaching beyond its current capabilities, especially in areas like foreign aid, NGOs appear to be at the fringes of political, social and economic agenda setting in that country.
This paper compares NGOs to other established interest groups in Japan. It seeks to understand how NGOs formed, obstacles to their development and maintenance, their potential for growth. Second, using the interaction between Japan's aid bureaucracy and NGOs, the paper will discuss NGOs' use of advocacy tools and will explore the ways NGOs attempt to shape public debate over issues of concern and influence government policy. Basic issues to be addressed are: What kinds of work do Japanese NGOs do? Do they have contact with NGOs in developing countries, and if they do, what kinds of development work do they carry out through those developing country NGOs? What kinds of contact do they have with the Japanese government, in particular the aid bureaucracy? Do some NGOs have better access to government policy makers or to government subsidies? If this is the case, how does that affect the kind of development projects that those NGOs carry out in developing countries? How do these special relationships affect the development profile of the Japanese aid program? Finally, it will assess the NGOs' success in putting their development and political perspectives on the political agenda.
Elizabeth Heiman-Zagorodney, University of California, Santa Barbara
Understanding access is crucial to understanding politics. Who gets heard and under what circumstances is the key to policy outcomes. In the study of Japanese politics, the general trend is to accept that big business, bureaucrats and politicians form a loop, or triangle in which information is shared and through which policy is determined. Sometimes this triangle is expanded to include some other powerful or related interest group. Yet, even journalists who regularly consult with policy makers are generally not included in our theoretical policy triangle. In fact, other than Kabashima and Broadbent (1990), the only scholars who seem to include media seriously are those in communications (Ito, Tsujimura). In fact, the communications scholars talk about a different triangle altogether. They refer to a triangle of media, policy makers and public opinion. Yet, the public in Japan has little access to policy makers. How then is public opinion an important part of the question of access? I would argue that public opinion factors into the question about who gets listened to and when. If an issue is highly visible in the mass media and it can be argued that public opinion supports or opposes a policy based either on public opinion polls or editorials, then interest groups may find that not only do they have access, but they have influence.
This can be seen in recent trade negotiations, not just domestically, but internationally as well. Domestic interest groups found that publicity about issues in the media made public opinion aware and they could use this as a bargaining chip with the government. The U.S. government has also found that public opinion can play in their favor or not depending on how successfully they access and sway public opinion. One example of this is the large store law in Japan. For over a decade various groups within Japan tried to change that law, without success. In 1989, it became a part of the SII negotiations and was successfully changed. I would argue that the publicity surrounding the negotiations, the success of the U.S. lobbying attempts and the ability of department stores to use public opinion in their favor all contributed to deregulation. In this paper, I will explore the large store law as well as some of the other issues in SII and contrast them to the more recent structural talks. I think that we will find that even the ability to set the agenda for the talks was affected by the way the media and the public responded.
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