1998 Scores
Status: Free
Freedom Rating: 1.5
Civil Liberties: 2
Political Rights: 1
Overview
Japan's national malaise continued in 1998 as an economy that had been troubled since the early 1990's tumbled into its worst recession since World War II. The two main institutions that oversaw the country's strong post-War growth – the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Finance Ministry – looked increasingly paralyzed. In July, the LDP's Keizo Obuchi became premier after voters signaled a desire for leadership and economic reform by punishing the party in upper house elections.
Following its defeat in World War II, Japan adopted an American-drafted constitution in 1947 that vested legislative authority in the two-house Diet (parliament) and ended the emperor's divine status. In 1955, the two wings of the opposition Japan Socialist Party (JSP) united, and the two main conservative parties merged to form the LDP. This "1955 system" remained in place throughout the Cold War, as the LDP won successive elections, presided over what became the world's second largest economy, and maintained close security ties to the United States. The leftist JSP became an institutional opposition.
By the early 1990's, the LDP's factionalism and corruption, combined with an easing of Cold War security tensions, had led ordinary Japanese to question the "iron triangle" of politics, business, and the bureaucracy that favored corporations, farmers, and other special interests and allowed the powerful bureaucracy to control policy and impose costly regulations. The party lost power for the first time in the 1993 elections, but returned to power in 1994 in a coalition government. In December 1994, LDP defector Ichiro Ozawa helped organize nine conservative opposition parties into the center-right New Frontier Party (NFP), which promised economic deregulation, a more assertive foreign policy, and a competitive two-party system.
In 1995, the LDP named Ryutaro Hashimoto as premier in a bid for fresh leadership. In early elections in October 1996, held with a 59.6 percent turnout, voters opted for the stability and conservatism of the LDP, which won 239 seats and formed a minority government under Hashimoto. The NFP won 156; the new, reformist Democratic Party, 52; the Communist Party, 26; the Socialist Democratic Party (SDP), the successor to the JSP, 15; and minor parties and independents, 12.
By late 1997, financial crises in Southeast Asia and South Korea threatened Japan's already overburdened banking system. Ever since the collapse of the "bubble economy" and its inflated asset prices in the early 1990's, the Japanese economy had been dragged down by a banking system staggering under some $600 billion of bad debt. Ending a decades-old practice of forcing solvent banks to bail out weak ones the Hashimoto government allowed three major financial institutions to fail in November. Meanwhile, in December 1997, Ozawa dissolved the NFP and formed a new Liberal Party with the hope of merging it with the more conservative wing of the LDP.
In January 1998, a months-long investigation into financial sector corruption shifted from the corporate sector to the bureaucracy with the first of several arrests at the Ministry of Finance, arguably Japan's most powerful institution. While the Japanese have known for decades that bureaucrats accept bribes and favors from the banks they regulate, reports of bureaucrats being entertained in sex clubs damaged public confidence in a ministry which had already been questioned for its inability to boost the economy.
By the end of the first quarter of 1998, the economy had sunk into its first recession in 23 years. Record-high unemployment of 4.1 percent, negligible wage growth, anxiety that future governments will be unable to provide for the country's aging population, and the effects of an April 1997 increase in the national sales tax had led to anemic consumer demand. The government's spiraling spending on Japan's aging population, and its desire to reduce its budget deficit to less than 3 percent of the GDP by 2003, largely prevented it from using Keynesian stimulus measures.
In the July 12 elections for 126 upper house seats, turnout surged from 44 percent in the 1995 upper house vote to 59 percent. The LDP lost 17 of the 61 contested seats it held, and the party's support came mainly from Japan's shrinking rural population. The Democratic Party solidified itself as the main opposition by gaining 9 seats, although voters seemed primarily attracted to the party as a protest vote, or for its popular leader, Naoto Kan, rather than on policy grounds. Although the LDP still controlled the more important lower house, Hashimoto resigned and Obuchi, the foreign minister, became premier. In November, parliament announced a $195 billion stimulus plan, the largest of several announced during the year. But many analysts argued that only structural reforms will deliver long-term growth, including greater economic deregulation and an end to the bureaucracy's control of policy making.
Political Rights and Civil Liberties
Japanese citizens can change their government democratically. The lower house has 500 seats with 300 single-seat districts and 200 seats chosen by proportional representation. The upper house has 152 single-seat districts and 100 seats chosen by proportional representation. While recent corruption scandals in the Ministry of Finance may shift some power to the politicians, the Ministry's strength and expertise mean that it still sets financial policy. Moreover, in the spring, the government cut the size of the prosecution team investigating financial sector corruption, and transferred its head to a remote district.
A continuing civil liberties concern involves the 700,000 Korean permanent residents, many of whom trace their ancestry in Japan for two or three generations. Ethnic Koreans regularly face discrimination in housing, education, and employment opportunities; they are not automatically deemed Japanese citizens at birth, and must submit to an official background check and adopt Japanese names to become naturalized. Both the Burakumin, who are descendants of feudal-era outcasts, and the indigenous Ainu minority also face unofficial discrimination and social ostracism.
The judiciary is independent. The Criminal Procedure Code allows authorities to restrict a suspect's right to counsel during an investigation, and bars counsel during interrogations. The common practice of using police cells to hold the accused between arrest and sentencing reportedly encourages physical abuse to extract confessions. Human rights groups criticize the penal system's extreme emphasis on regimentation and dehumanizing punishments. Immigration officers are accused of regularly beating detained illegal aliens.
Civic institutions are strong and freedoms of expression, assembly and association are generally respected in practice. Exclusive private press clubs provide journalists with access to top politicians and major ministries, and in return, journalists often practice self-censorship with sensitive stories. The Education Ministry routinely censors passages in history textbooks describing Japan's World War II atrocities. In 1997, the Supreme Court affirmed the government's right of censorship, but for the first time ruled that the Education Ministry had broken the law by censoring references to well-documented Japanese germ warfare experiments in China in the 1940's.
Women face significant employment discrimination and are frequently tracked into clerical careers. A 1997 law banned workplace discrimination against women, and lifted restrictions on women's working hours, which unions say had been used to keep women out of management positions. However, sanctions for corporate violators are weak. In April, police announced a crackdown on gangsters who traffic Filipino and Thai women to Japan with the promise of regular jobs, and then force them to work as prostitutes. There is full freedom of religion; Buddhism and Shintoism have the most adherents. Trade unions are independent and active.
Disclaimer: © Freedom House, Inc. · All Rights Reserved
This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.