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Crisis Management, LDP, and DPJ Style

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2013

ELLIS KRAUSS
ELLIS KRAUSS*
Affiliation:
Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of CaliforniaSan [email protected]
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Abstract

This article asks the questions: Did the DPJ engage in crisis response and management differently than the LDP did? If so, why? If not, why not? In order to try to answer these questions systematically I use an inductive comparative method of choosing three equivalent ‘cases’ each under the LDP and the DPJ in which they responded to a similar type of crisis. The crises selected were Okinawa bases issues in 1995 (LDP) and 2009 (DPJ), Senkaku Islands under the LDP (2008) and DPJ (2010), and the Hanshin quake in 1995 (LDP) and Fukushima in 2011 (DPJ). This gave me a nice mix of intense, short-term cases to compare; one domestic (disaster-related), and two foreign (Okinawa bases with US; Senkaku/Daiyou conflict with China); coalition governments under LDP and DPJ (2009) of different kinds vs. single-party (other DPJ). A very brief description of each crisis will be followed by some generalizations comparing the two parties’ responses. I find that both parties had similar problems with information management, but that there were characteristic and predictable trade-offs of their different party decisionmaking structures and relations with the national bureaucracy. Finally, I mention some of the inherent structural problems of Japanese politics and policymaking that inhibit effective response regardless of the party in power.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 14 , Special Issue 2: Japan's Crisis Management amid Growing Complexity: In Search of New Approaches , June 2013 , pp. 177 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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