The Policy-Making Process in Contemporary Japan

This work deals with the public policy-making process in contemporary Japan which testifies a new dictum: "The various phases of the policy process cause politics". The analytical focus is threefold, encompassing: the policy-making process on the national level; elections and the policy-making process; and the regional policy and decision-making. These analyses offer a number of comparative data on Japanese politics. The text also tries to interpret the basic pattern of Japanese politics, which contributes to an understanding of the dynamic aspects of the political process and political economy after the Second World War.