characteristics of the postwar japanese government?

Answer 1

Structure: constitutional hereditary monarchy, three-branch government, bicameral legislature, prime minister system (closer to UK than US).

Parties: For most of the postwar, Japan was ruled by a single party with smaller, minority parties largely irrelevant. The majority party was the LDP, or Liberal Democratic Party. Compared to the United States' Democratic Party, it was more pro-business and culturally middle-of-the-road. The party was divided into factions, which took on the roles of the major political parties in most democratic systems.

Economy: The government is more involved in economic development than the US government is. This was especially true in the immediate postwar rebuilding of Japan. The prewar and wartime corporations were broken up and reabsorbed, used in rebuilding, and then sold off to balance the accounts. By around 1960, the "postwar" was coming to an end, and the government was much less involved in industry and economic development, but still more so than the United States government at the same time.

Military: Japan's military was limited to the SDF (Self-Defense Force) and limited, non-combat involvement such as refugee relief and engineering/construction, and even that only beginning around 1990. Japan's postwar constitution determined that - I think it's Article X. Many in Japan would like to change that, now.

Citizens and government: Japan's government has been the plaything of powerful interests for a long time, not that that's not equally true in the US, but it seems that it's more open in Japan. Still, the country has managed to take progressive stances on welfare, education, and personal liberty. If the government has seemed distant and unassailable, it has at least looked after the people reasonably well.

With the 1990s and financial collapse, Japanese nationalism resurfaced and many of the 1945-1990 assumptions were questioned. The role of government is changing in Japan, more toward market capitalism and the Libertarian ideal and a bit away from the socially progressive and politcally corrupt postwar model.