Interministry coordination in Japan's foreign policy making

Pacific Affairs

Volumn 71, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 41-59

  Ahn, C S ^a  

^a U S DEPARTMENT OF STATE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FOREIGN POLICY; INTERMINISTRY COORDINATION; POLICY MAKING; POLITICAL PROCESS;

JAPAN;

EID: 0031878986     PISSN: 0030851X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/2760822     Document Type: Article

References (61)

1. For example, see Atsushi Kusano, "The Structure and Process of External Policy Decisions" (Taigai Seisaku Kettei no Kiko to Katei), in Tadashi Aruga, et al., eds. International Politics Series: Japanese Foreign Policy (Koza Kokusai Seiji: Nihon no Gaiko) (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppansha, 1989), pp. 53-92. Also, Yasunori Sone, "The Japanese Political System and Foreign Policy" (Nihon no Seiji Sistemu to Gaiko), in Aruga, et al., eds. International Politics Series, pp. 93-121. Nobutoshi Nagata, Everything About Japanese Diplomacy (Nihon Gaiko no Subete) (Tokyo: Gyosei Mondai Kenkyujo, 1989) also touches on, though sporadically, the problem of disunity in Japanese diplomacy; see pp. 343-48; 363-68. An extensive reportage on Japan's "dual diplomacy" during the Persian Gulf Crisis and its dysfunctional consequences was made in Ryuichi Tejima, Japan's Defeat in 1991 (Senkyuhyaku Kyujuichinen Nihon no Haiboku) (Tokyo: Shinchosha, 1993), esp. pp. 276-340.
2. For example, see Atsushi Kusano, "The Structure and Process of External Policy Decisions" (Taigai Seisaku Kettei no Kiko to Katei), in Tadashi Aruga, et al., eds. International Politics Series: Japanese Foreign Policy (Koza Kokusai Seiji: Nihon no Gaiko) (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppansha, 1989), pp. 53-92. Also, Yasunori Sone, "The Japanese Political System and Foreign Policy" (Nihon no Seiji Sistemu to Gaiko), in Aruga, et al., eds. International Politics Series, pp. 93-121. Nobutoshi Nagata, Everything About Japanese Diplomacy (Nihon Gaiko no Subete) (Tokyo: Gyosei Mondai Kenkyujo, 1989) also touches on, though sporadically, the problem of disunity in Japanese diplomacy; see pp. 343-48; 363-68. An extensive reportage on Japan's "dual diplomacy" during the Persian Gulf Crisis and its dysfunctional consequences was made in Ryuichi Tejima, Japan's Defeat in 1991 (Senkyuhyaku Kyujuichinen Nihon no Haiboku) (Tokyo: Shinchosha, 1993), esp. pp. 276-340.
3. For example, see Atsushi Kusano, "The Structure and Process of External Policy Decisions" (Taigai Seisaku Kettei no Kiko to Katei), in Tadashi Aruga, et al., eds. International Politics Series: Japanese Foreign Policy (Koza Kokusai Seiji: Nihon no Gaiko) (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppansha, 1989), pp. 53-92. Also, Yasunori Sone, "The Japanese Political System and Foreign Policy" (Nihon no Seiji Sistemu to Gaiko), in Aruga, et al., eds. International Politics Series, pp. 93-121. Nobutoshi Nagata, Everything About Japanese Diplomacy (Nihon Gaiko no Subete) (Tokyo: Gyosei Mondai Kenkyujo, 1989) also touches on, though sporadically, the problem of disunity in Japanese diplomacy; see pp. 343-48; 363-68. An extensive reportage on Japan's "dual diplomacy" during the Persian Gulf Crisis and its dysfunctional consequences was made in Ryuichi Tejima, Japan's Defeat in 1991 (Senkyuhyaku Kyujuichinen Nihon no Haiboku) (Tokyo: Shinchosha, 1993), esp. pp. 276-340.
4. For example, see Atsushi Kusano, "The Structure and Process of External Policy Decisions" (Taigai Seisaku Kettei no Kiko to Katei), in Tadashi Aruga, et al., eds. International Politics Series: Japanese Foreign Policy (Koza Kokusai Seiji: Nihon no Gaiko) (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppansha, 1989), pp. 53-92. Also, Yasunori Sone, "The Japanese Political System and Foreign Policy" (Nihon no Seiji Sistemu to Gaiko), in Aruga, et al., eds. International Politics Series, pp. 93-121. Nobutoshi Nagata, Everything About Japanese Diplomacy (Nihon Gaiko no Subete) (Tokyo: Gyosei Mondai Kenkyujo, 1989) also touches on, though sporadically, the problem of disunity in Japanese diplomacy; see pp. 343-48; 363-68. An extensive reportage on Japan's "dual diplomacy" during the Persian Gulf Crisis and its dysfunctional consequences was made in Ryuichi Tejima, Japan's Defeat in 1991 (Senkyuhyaku Kyujuichinen Nihon no Haiboku) (Tokyo: Shinchosha, 1993), esp. pp. 276-340.
5. For a concise presentation of this topic, see Kusano, "The Structure and Process," pp. 53-92. Also, Haruhiko Fukui, "Too Many Captains in Japan's Internationalization: Travails at the Foreign Ministry," The Journal of Japanese Studies, vol. 13, no. 2 (Summer 1987), pp. 359-81.
6. For a concise presentation of this topic, see Kusano, "The Structure and Process," pp. 53-92. Also, Haruhiko Fukui, "Too Many Captains in Japan's Internationalization: Travails at the Foreign Ministry," The Journal of Japanese Studies, vol. 13, no. 2 (Summer 1987), pp. 359-81.
7. Michio Muramatsu, Postwar Japanese Bureaucracy (Sengo Nihon no Kanryo Seido) (Tokyo: Toyo Keizai Shimposha, 1981), p. 154.
8. For a fuller discussion of the reorganization of the Cabinet Secretariat and its constituent offices, see Kenji Hayao, The Japanese Prime Minister and Public Policy (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993), pp. 168-83. Also, Motohito Shinoda, The Prime Minister's Power and Leadership (Soridaijin no Kenryoku to Shidoryoku) (Tokyo: Toyo Keizai Shimposha, 1994), pp. 101-12.
9. For a fuller discussion of the reorganization of the Cabinet Secretariat and its constituent offices, see Kenji Hayao, The Japanese Prime Minister and Public Policy (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993), pp. 168-83. Also, Motohito Shinoda, The Prime Minister's Power and Leadership (Soridaijin no Kenryoku to Shidoryoku) (Tokyo: Toyo Keizai Shimposha, 1994), pp. 101-12.
10. Interview with former director of the Cabinet Security Office on December 15, 1995. A similar account is mentioned in Kenji Hayao, The Japanese Prime Minister, p. 171.
11. Kusano, "The Structure and Process," pp. 74-78.
12. Interview on August 1, 1996.
13. Akio Watanabe, "The Structure and Process of External Policy Formation" (Nihon no Taigaiseisaku Keisei no Kiko to Katei) in Chihiro Hosoya and Joji Watanuki, eds. A Comparison between Japan and the US on the Process of External Policy Decision (Taigaiseisaku Ketteikatei no Nichibei Hikaku) (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigeku Shuppansha, 1977), pp. 37-38.
14. Prime Minister Hatoyama Ichiro's policy initiative for Soviet-Japanese normalization in 1956 and Prime Minister Nakasone's "INF initiative" at the 1983 Williamsburg Summit are known to have been made independent of the bureaucracy.
15. Interview with Koji Kakizawa on December 26, 1995.
16. For a general discussion of MOFA Kacho's role, see Watanabe, "The Structure and Process." What Watanabe described in the work was confirmed in several interviews with MOFA officials between December 1995 and January 1996.
17. Interview with Hisakazu Takase on December 14, 1995.
18. Information on the formal structure of interministry coordination was gathered through interviews with former deputy ministers of MITI and MAFF and a MOFA director general between July 23 and August 2, 1996.
19. Watanabe, "The Structure and Process," p. 43.
20. Interviews with former and current MOFA and MITI division directors between December 1995 and January 1996, and with former MITI and MAFF deputy ministers and a MOFA deputy director general between July 23 and August 2, 1996. A MOFA deputy director general (Shingikan) interviewed on July 23, 1996 said that MOFA was trying to "upgrade" the level of interministry coordination from Kacho to bureau councillor, because Kacho are "overburdened" in these days, at least at MOFA, and the traditional "bottom-up" way of making decisions is shifting to a "top-down" manner owing to a variety of factors, including the shortening of diplomatic response time and the increasing importance of the policy areas to be coordinated.
21. Interview on August 1, 1996.
22. Interview with a MITI director on January 10, 1996.
23. Watanabe, "The Structure and Process," pp. 43-44.
24. Kusano, "The Structure and Process," p. 74.
25. Watanabe, "The Structure and Process," pp. 43-44.
26. Kusano, "The Structure and Process," p. 86.
27. As a case representing this situation, former MOFA official Hisahiko Okazaki cited MOFA's prevailing over other views in the decision to suspend ODA to China as a response to its nuclear testing in August, 1995. Interview on December 6, 1995.
28. Interview on January 10, 1996,
29. Watanabe, "The Structure and Process," p. 43-44.
30. Watanabe, "The Structure and Process," footnote 45.
31. Interview on July 24, 1996.
32. Tejima, Japan's Defeat, pp. 112-27.
33. Tejima, Japan's Defeat, pp. 112-27.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid.
39. Joji Suma, "Do Bureaucrats Have Information Power? - the Inside Story of Rice Tariffication" (Kanryo ni Johoryoku wa Aruka: Kome Kanzeika no Naimaku)," Bungei Shunju (February 1994), pp. 158-66. Also, Satoru Nagao, "Japan's International Negotiations and Domestic Politics in the Process of Making Decisions on the Partial Liberalization of Rice Import" (Kome Bubunjiyuka Kettei ni Okeru Nihon no Kokusai Kosho to Kokunai Seiji), Kokusai Mondai (May, 1994), pp. 34-43.
40. Joji Suma, "Do Bureaucrats Have Information Power? - the Inside Story of Rice Tariffication" (Kanryo ni Johoryoku wa Aruka: Kome Kanzeika no Naimaku)," Bungei Shunju (February 1994), pp. 158-66. Also, Satoru Nagao, "Japan's International Negotiations and Domestic Politics in the Process of Making Decisions on the Partial Liberalization of Rice Import" (Kome Bubunjiyuka Kettei ni Okeru Nihon no Kokusai Kosho to Kokunai Seiji), Kokusai Mondai (May, 1994), pp. 34-43.
41. Suma, "Information Power," pp. 158-66.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid. Also, Nagao, "Japan's International Negotiations," pp. 34-43.
44. Ibid. Also, Nagao, "Japan's International Negotiations," pp. 34-43.
45. Nobuo Ishihara, Two Thousand Six Hundred Sixty Eight Days in the Prime Minister's Residence (Kantei Nisen Rokpyaku Rokuju Hachi Nichi) (Tokyo: NHK Shuppansha, 1995), pp. 111-12.
46. Suma, "Information Power," pp. 158-66.
47. Ibid.
48. Shinoda, The Prime Minister's Power, p. 104.
49. How this channel of coordination reconciles with the formal structure of interministry coordination described earlier is not clear. Presumably, the DCCSA-initiated coordination instruction is based on the legal authority of the PM's Office.
50. Interview with Nobuo Ishihara on December 12, 1995.
51. Interview with Eiichi Hasegawa on January 10, 1996.
52. Interview with Yukio Okamoto on December 20, 1995.
53. Quoted in Kusano, "The Structure and Process," p. 77.
54. Fukui, "Too Many Captains," p. 377.
55. Interview article of Noboru Hatakeyama by Heizo Takenaka, "The Role of the Bureaucracy in Policy Decisions" (Seisaku Kettei niokeru Kanryo no Yakuwari), in Japan's Political Environment and Economic Policy (Nihon no Seiji Kankyo to Keizai Seisaku), 3rd Series, April 1995.
56. Chihiro Hosoya, "The Characteristic Traits of Japan and the US in the Process of Making Foreign Policy Decisions" (Taigai Seisaku Kettei ni Okeru Nichibei no Tokushitsu), in Hosoya and Watanuki, eds., A Comparison between Japan and the US, pp. 5-10.
57. This description of bureaucratic activities is based on interviews conducted among various government officials, Diet members, journalists, and academics between December 1995 and August 1996.
58. Based on the same interviews conducted between December 1995 and August 1996 (fn. 50). For a full discussion of the "proactive role" the Japanese bureaucracy was forced to play in foreign policy coordination under the coalition governments see C. S. Ahn, "Government-Party Coordination in Japan's foreign Policy-Making: The Issue of Permanent Membership in the UNSC," Asian Survey, vol. 37, no. 4 (April 1997), pp. 368-82.
59. Takase interview, December 14, 1995.
60. Kusano, "The Structure and Process," p. 71.
61. For the coalition liaison councils' ineffectiveness, see C. S. Ahn, "Government-Party Coordination," p. 375-79.