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Nurturing Leaders for Government and Opposition: Political Schools in Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Peng-Er Lam
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Abstract

This article examines why political schools have emerged in Japan. While the roles of founding fathers, the angst of national decline and the perception of a ‘leadership deficit’ in Japan have paved their emergence, a fundamental reason for their existence is the failure of Japanese political parties to recruit candidates from broader social backgrounds beyond political dynasties, the bureaucracy and narrow interest groups. The article examines four political schools in Japan including the Matsushita Seikei Juku (MSJ, Matsushita Institute of Government and Management). I argue that while the MSJ has successfully produced many students who have won elections, it has not nurtured visionary leaders who can lead Japan out of its economic and political malaise.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , 2006 , pp. 534 - 560
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 2006

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References

2 The term ‘leadership deficit’ was articulated by Nippon Keidanren chairman Okuda Hiroshi. See Samuels, Richard J., ‘Generational Change and Japanese Leadership’, in Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Asia Program Special Report, 117 (January 2004), p. 16.Google Scholar

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4 The job distribution of MSJ graduates in 2005 was: 44 per cent in politics, 28 per cent in business and management, 18 per cent in think tanks, academia, mass communications and NGOs, and 10 per cent in other sectors, http://www.mskj.or.jp/how/shinro.html, accessed 21 February 2006.Google Scholar

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8 A journalist noted that in the 2003 Lower House elections, only 18 politicians who hailed from the Waseda University Debating Club were elected, in contrast to 26 from the MSJ. Thus, ‘the MSJ has become the number one brand name in the political world’. See ‘Matsushita seikei juku no kenkyu’ (The Research on the MSJ), Foresight, 1 (January 2004), p. 76.Google Scholar

9 Matsushita Konosuke is often regarded as a ‘god of management’ in Japan.Google Scholar

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11 According to a MSJ graduate who prefers to remain anonymous, Matsushita realized the importance of politics because he personally experienced the disaster of the Second World War. He implied that bad political leaders led Japan down the road to war, catastrophe and defeat. The MSJ graduate quoted Matsushita: ‘If a country has excellent leaders, she can prosper. However, if the country does not have them, she will fall and perish.’Google Scholar

12 Comment by Sakurai Masahiko, manager of administration, MSJ, author interview, 22 May 2002.Google Scholar

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21 Some MSJ Diet members are disciplined enough to make weekly speeches to commuters at train stations at 6.00 a.m. to demonstrate their sincerity and woo political mass support. Many MSJ politicians are also reputed to be knowledgeable about policy-making. Obviously, such qualities of physical endurance and policy expertise are also found in other non-MSJ politicians. But these qualities seem to be the hallmark of many MSJ graduates. On the policy-making competence of MSJ politicians, see for example the accounts by two MSJ Diet members: Ito Tatsuya, ‘Information Technology: New Policy Issues and the Role of Politicians’ and Maehara Seiji, ‘Toward a Fundamental Review of Public Works’, both in Gerald L. Curtis (ed.), Policymaking in Japan: Defining the Role of Politicians, Tokyo, Japan Center for International Exchange, 2002, pp. 62–86 and 87–100.Google Scholar

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37 The JFC endorsed 62 candidates in the 2003 local elections; 29 were successful. See ‘Matsushita seikei juku no kenkyu’, Foresight, 2 (February 2004), p. 92.Google Scholar

38 The club's platform includes: ‘releasing details of all revenue and expenditures related to elections, making elections based on individual politicians, not political parties while campaigns should be supported by volunteers and voluntary donations, prohibiting prefectural governors and mayors from seeking third terms and prohibit family members from taking over from politicians who die or retire. The club will offer staff to candidates who endorse those ideas and show how campaigns can be run by volunteers and voluntary donations.’‘Political Club Looking for “clean” Members’, Asahi Shimbun, 29 January 2003, http://www.asahi.com/english/politics/K2003013000228.html, accessed: 30 January 2003.Google Scholar

39 I interviewed Matsuzawa when he was a non-party affiliated prefectural assemblyman in his Kawasaki office in autumn 1991. For an autobiographic account of Matsuzawa's early foray into local politics, see Matsuzawa Shigefumi, Sainensho giin no funtoki: chiho kara no seiji kaikaku (A Record of the Youngest Assembly Member's Hard Fight: Political Reform from the Locality), Tokyo, Gyosei, 1991.Google Scholar

40 See ‘Matsuzawa Shigefumi no manifaesuto’ (Matsuzawa Shegefumi's Manifesto), at http://www.matuzawa.com/kanagawa/k_power/k_power_02.htm, accessed 9 February 2004.Google Scholar

41 See Matsuzawa's interview in ‘Koizumi Unlikely to Deliver on Reform of Post’, Nikkei Weekly, 26 January 2004, p. 6.Google Scholar

42 Just a few days after Nakada won the mayoral election in Yokohama, the Mainichi Shimbun's political dictionary column focused on the meaning of Matsushita Seikei Juku. It noted that the hallmark of the MSJ graduates is that they are not second-generation politicians with name recognition and a strong pre-existing political base. See ‘Matsushita Seikei Juku’, Mainichi Shimbun, 2 April 2002. Nakada intimated: ‘In Japan, it is very difficult to become a Diet member without kinship of politicians, enormous financial capabilities, or support from influential groups. Although I come from an ordinary household, the Matsushita School provided me with the education, inspiration and confidence to seek office anyway.’ Nakada Hiroshi, ‘Let's Change Japan!: Reform Initiatives from Yokohama’, public speech at CSIS, Washington DC, 23 June 2003, available from CSIS website.Google Scholar

43 Okada Kunihiko candidly remarked that while the MSJ has succeeded in grooming its students to win elections, it is another matter whether it had indeed succeeded in producing good political leaders. He intimated that it is still too early to tell. Okada Kunihiko, author interview, 4 October 2002.Google Scholar

44 Seki Kiyoshi, author interview, 21 May 2002.Google Scholar

45 ‘Matsushita seikei juku no kenkyu’, Foresight, 1 (January 2004), p. 76.Google Scholar

46 Ibid.Google Scholar

47 Yamamura noted that although the MSJ alumni have enjoyed electoral success, the limitation of the institute is that not a single one of them had become a minister. The breakthrough was in September 2004 when Ito Tatsuya became the first MSJ graduate to become a minister. See Yamamura Akiyoshi, ‘Matsushita seikei juku ga seikai ni bakko suru’ (The MSJ Prevails in the Political World), Bungei Shunju, February 2004, pp. 374–81. In my opinion, the real limitation of the MSJ is not whether its graduates have become ministers or not but whether they can become politicians with principles and visions.Google Scholar

48 It is not true that politicians from all Japanese parties lack principles and consistency. Politicians from the Japan Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party are very firm on certain principles such as opposing the revision of the Constitution.Google Scholar

49 Seki Kiyoshi remarked that it is the nature of Japanese society that few women are interested in running in elections. Seki Kiyoshi, author interview, 21 May 2002.Google Scholar

50 For Ohmae Kenichi's biography see Ohmae et al., ‘Biography of Keinichi Ohmae’, . On the Isshin Juku, see http://www.kohmae.com/profile/index.html.Google Scholar

51 The term ‘isshin’ in Japanese can mean renovation, renewal, reform, a complete change or even a revolution.Google Scholar

52 For Ohmae's motivations to establish the Isshin Juku, see Ohmae Kenichi, Ohmae Kenichi no Isshin Juku (Ohmae Keinichi's Isshin Juku), Tokyo, Purejidento sha, 2000.Google Scholar

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54 ‘Koizumi School of Politics Set to Debut’, Asahi Shimbun, 24 December 2003, at http://www.asahi.com/english/politics/TKY200312240096.html, accessed 24 December 2003.Google Scholar

55 Ibid.Google Scholar

56 On the LDP's organizations for power, see Sato Seizaburo and Matsuzaki Tetsuhisa, Jiminto Seiken (Liberal Democratic Party Government), Tokyo, Chuo Koronsha, 1986; and Inoguchi Takashi and Iwai Tomoaki, Zoku giin no kenkyu (Research on Policy Tribes), Tokyo, Nihon Keizai shimbun, 1987. Political machines that provide goods and services to voters are expensive to maintain. Indeed, the insatiable demand for funds to maintain political machines is a root cause of money politics and political corruption in Japan.Google Scholar

57 See editorial of Manichi Shimbun, 5 September 2004 on Abe's reforms amidst a sense of crisis within the LDP. On Abe's reforms to recruit LDP candidates outside the party ranks who will be appealing to voters without party affiliation, see ‘LDP's Future in Jeopardy Unless Party Reforms’, editorial in Daily Yomiuri Online, 19 August 2004, at http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20040819wo81.htm, accessed 19 August 2004.Google Scholar