Political Change in Japan

In the early 1990s, Japanese reformers promised a political transformation: fewer pork-barrel projects, more accountability, and greater transparency. Have these promises been realized?

Steven R. Reed is a professor of modern government at Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan. He has taught in Japan and in Japanese for the past fifteen years. Kenneth Mori McElwain is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Michigan. He studies how partisan incentives influence the design of political institutions. Kay Shimizu is an assistant professor of political science at Columbia University. Her research examines how politics determines economic outcomes and the institutions that facilitate political influence.