Local level politics in Japan

What is it about?

This article reviews three books written in Japanese by Japanese scholars (Imai, Machidori and Soga, and Taniguchi), by examining Japanese political issues at the subnational level. This includes topics such as the roles of prefectural political actors in the policy-making process, origins of municipal mergers, and responses to the electoral system reform of Lower House elections.

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Photo by Sorasak on Unsplash

Photo by Sorasak on Unsplash

Why is it important?

While research on Japan thus far has aimed at understanding political and policy processes in Japan, there still remains a dimension to contemporary Japanese politics not fully investigated; that is, a wave of important political changes taking place at local levels in Japan. This research sheds further light on the under-investigated political issues in Japan at the subnational level.