Comp Pol Quiz 6

• What is the Tokugawa Shogunate?


  The military clan that unified and ruled Japan from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries (after the Feudal Wars).
• What was the problem with the Tokugawa Shogunate?

  There was a strict hierarchy created in which individuals could not move between class nor advance in their own class. As time went on, the samari class became poor as the merchants became wealthy, leading to revolt.
• What is the hierarchy order of the Tokugawa Shogunate?

  Samurai (shogun and daimyo then retainers), peasants (bulk of hierarchy), artisans & craftsmen, merchants
• What does sakoku mean?

  "The closed country." Tokugawa Japan's policy of enforced isolation, which lasted from the 17th to the 19th centuries.
• What is the Meiji Restoration?

  Japan's 1867-1868 "revolution from above," which launched Japan's modernization in the name of the Meiji emperor. It was developed by low-ranking samurai wanting to promote a positive reform that involved emulation of and catching up with the West.
• What slogan is attached to the Meiji Restoration?

  "Rich country, strong military"
• Who are the daimyo?

  Territorial nobles or lords that govern the lands they occupy. Formed during the decentralization of hierarchies of the central government from the 8th to 12th century.
• Who are the genro?

  Oligarchy that dominated the Japanese government from beginning of the Meiji Constitution (1889) to the early 1930s.
• What does "zaibatsu" refer to?

  State-nurtured but privately owned industrial conglomerates, aka financial cliques. Forged the first of the enduring ties between big business and the state that have persisted to the present.
• What is the Taisho Democracy?

  The era of tentative democratization in Japan (1918-1931). An unsuccessful attempt to establish a liberal democracy by different political groups. Ended when the army seized Manchuria (1931) and the assassination of the last elected head of government by naval cadets (1932).
• What was important about the Sino-Japanese Wars?

  It marked the emergence of Japan as a major world power and demonstrated the weakness of the Chinese empire. Started with both countries fighting over Korea
• What was important about the Russo-Japanese War?

  A continuation of the Sino-Japanese wars but with Russia. Japan forced Russia to abandon its expansionist policy in East Asia. Marked the first time an Asian power in modern times defeated a European power.
• Why did Japan want to invade Manchuria?

  To gain access to natural resources for its growing industries. Justified their invasion by claiming that the Chinese army attacked its railroad in Manchuria
• What does the "Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere" mean?

  The lands that Japan has conquered and wanted to expand their ideologies.
• What was Japan's Constitution in 1946?

  Drafted by US's Douglas MacArthur, the initial plan called for demilitarization to exorcise Japan's militant feudal past and then for democratization to establish American-style democratic values and institutions. Disbanded all military leaders and replaced them with technocrats (former bureaucrats) and zaibatsu families with professional managers.
• What is Article 9?

  The "Peace Clause." Stated that Japan would "forever renounce war as a sovereign right" and never maintain "land, sea, and air forces as well as other war potential."
• What is the Diet?

  Japan's bicameral parliament. Involves a lower house called the House of Representatives (465 members) and an upper house called the House of Councilors (248 members).
• What does the House of Representatives do?

  Can call for a vote of no confidence and is the more powerful chamber in parliament. Can be dissolved before the term has ended to call elections from a position of strength. Can override any H of C's decisions on a significant legislation with a 2/3 majority vote.
• What does the House of Councillors do?

  Cannot be dissolved. Can have votes of no confidence towards the parting controlling the lower house.
• What is the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)?

  Japan's conservative political party, which has governed Japan for over six decades since the party's inception in 1955. Historically fostered prospective party leaders who were more concerned with factional ties, personal connections, and backroom bargaining than with promoting a particular ideology or policy agenda. Funny because not liberal nor democratic nor a party. Pro-business, supportive of Japanese industry and agriculture, favor strong but efficient state.
• Who is the current prime minister of Japan?

  Fumio Kishida
• Who is Shinzo Abe?

  Conservative nationalist Liberal Democratic Party politician and two-time prime minister being Japan's longest-serving head of government. Extended tenure and more forceful leadership have led to scholars to calling Japan a "presidentialization" of parliamentary systems in contemporary democratic regimes. Recognized a need for more decisive and consistent national leadership
• What is Abenomics?

  Shinzo Abe's plan to increase Japan's money supply, boost government spending, and enacting reforms to make the Japanese economy more competitive.
• What is the Komeito?

  The "Clean Government Party" which occupied a middle ground between conservative, pro-business LDP politics and the socialist platform of the JSP. Minor political part and LDP coalition partner founded and supported by lay members of the Buddhist religious movement Soka Gakkai. Opposed to revising Article 9.
• What is the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)?


  Social-democratic party in government from 2009 to 2012; formed from the merger of reform-minded opposition parties in 1998 and re-formed as the "Democratic Party" after a subsequent 2016 merger.
• What does "developmental state" refer to?

  Japan's modern neomercantilist state, which has embraces both private property and state economic intervention.
• Who does "zoku" refer to?

  aka "tribal" legislators. Veteran politicians with established expertise in particular policy areas that hold a substantial degree of influence over policy formerly reserved for bureaucratic experts and may also feel less obligated to support the government's position on a given issue
• What does "dual economy" mean?

  Japan is sending their products on an international scale, but are careful about what products are coming into the country
• What are "pork-barrel projects"?

  Government appropriation or other policy supplying funds for local improvements to ingratiate legislators with their constituents. Basically slipping funding for local project into a larger appropriation bill
• What are the 3 Ds that plagues the economy?

  Deflation (declining prices), government Debt (more than twice Japan's annual GDP and the largest in the world), and budget Deficits (running annually at about 10 percent of GDP).
• What is "keiretsu"?

  Japan's large business groupings, the third point of the iron triangle. Exercise political influence through postwar development
• What is administrative guidance?

  Extralegal policy directives from government officials to private sector. Linkages among the iron triangle which determine and implement policies in an informal setting
• What is industrial policy?

  Formulated and implemented by Japan's elite economic bureaucracy after consultation and coordination with the private sector. Measures include imposing protective tariffs and nontariff barriers on imports, encouraging cooperation and limiting "excessive" competition in strategic expert sectors, and offering low-interest loans and tax breaks to firms willing to invest in targeted industries and technologies
• What does "amakuari" mean?

  Literally "decent from heaven," in which retiring Japanese senior bureaucrats take up positions in corporations or run for political office.
• What does "bubble economy" refer to?

  From 1973 to 1991 in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. It was a time of high economic growth.
• What is groupism in Japan?

  Belonging to a culture which favors both group thinking and group consensus. There is a great emphasis on collective goals and group harmony
• Why is Emperor Hirohito important?

  The emperor when Douglas MacArthur helped create a constitution that reduced the emperor's godlike stature to that of a "symbol of the State and of the unity of the people, deriving his position from the will of the people with whom resides sovereign power."
• Why is Emperor Akihito important?

  Eldest son of Hirohito, 125th direct descendant of Jimmu, Japan's first emperor
• Why is Emperor Naruhito important?

  Current Emperor of Japan and Son of Akihito. Studied at Oxford University and his wife studied at Harvard University. Continues Akihito's legacy by spreading the message of pacifism
• What does "Japan's demographic time bomb mean?"

  For the first time in 2022, Japan had a low birthrate of below 800,000. If this continues, Japan will not have a birthrate that can keep the population stable meaning their population should drop by 37 million in 40 years.