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Contemporary Japanese Politics: Institutional Changes and Power Shifts. Contemporary Asia in the World, By Tomohito Shinoda, New York: Columbia University Press, 2013. xvii, 328$). (Figures, tables. ) US$28.00, paper: ISBN 978-0-231-15853-4.
Contemporary Japanese Politics, by Tomohito Shinoda, is die most up-to-date English-language account of contemporaryjapanese podtics. It covers bodi die 38-year period of die Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) stint in power (the so-called 1955 regime) as wed as the changes that have occurred since die 1990s, culminating in die Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) becoming die government party in 2009. Since tiius far diere have been only analyses of specific aspects of this change in government (e.g., elections) available in English, a detailed treatise discussing this tiiree-year "DPJ interregnum" is welcome. The facts have been wed known, so a reader wed versed in die history of party politics and administrative reform will probably not have to readjust his understanding of die developments. That being said, so far nobody has spent die time and effort to put the facts and die substantial existing literature together and present it ad in a coherent and concise way. In that sense, the book is a good overview for readers seeking a summary of postwar politics with an emphasis on institutional changes and their effects on political leadership. What is more, die author's categorization and diligent citation of die existing literature should help tiiose looking for furtiier readings.
Shinoda's specific aim is die analysis of the power balance between Cabinet, bureaucracy and die Diet against the backdrop of institutional change and what effects diese...