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福岡国際問題研究所(Fukuoka Institute of Foreign Affairs)

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2009年 05月 24日

The fiction of responsible central government

The fiction of responsible central government_f0203194_1935737.jpgThe enigma of Japanese Power
by Karel Van Wolferen

P6 - P7から引用

First, there is the friction that Japan is a sovereign state like any other, a state with central organs of government that can both recognise what is good for the country and bear ultimate responsibility for national decision-making. This is an illusion that is very difficult to dispel. Diplomacy takes a government's ability to make responsible decisions for granted; it would be extremely difficult for foreign governments to proceed without the assumption of a Japanese government that can cope with the external world, as other governments do, simply by changing its policies.

Nevertheless, unless the relative lack of governmental responsibility in Japan, the fundamental cause of mutual frustration, is recognised, relations with Japan are bound to deteriorate further. Statecraft in Japan is quite different from in Europe, the Americans and most of contemporary Asia. For centuries it has entailed a balance between semi-autonomous groups that share in power. Today, the most powerful groups include certain ministry officials, some political cliques and clusters of bureaucrat-businessmen. There are many lesser ones, such as the agricultural co-operarive, the police, the press and the gangsters. All are components of what we may call the System in order to distinguish it from the state. No one is ultimately in charge. These semi-autonomous components, each endowed with discretionary powers that undermine the authority of the state, are not represent by any central body tha rule the roost.

by fifa5963 | 2009-05-24 19:00


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