Men and Government in Japan

...Where some observers attribute this to the immaturity of parliamentary democracy in Japan, Professor Yanaga sees deeper forces at work which stem from the Japanese national character...

...In Japanese People and Politics, Professor Chitoshi Yanaga of Yale University seeks to describe the workings of Japanese politics and government against the background of traditional Japanese behavior and attitudes...

...Particularly illuminating are the author's comments on the forces that have pushed Japan toward a multiparty system in the postwar period...

...Men and Government in Japan Japanese People and Politics...

...This study revolves essentially around three questions: First, what are the principal characteristics of the Japanese people and how are these reflected in their political behavior...

...Third, how do the groups and individuals who operate or seek to operate the machinery actually function and what are their typical attitudes and motives...

...It is in his discussion of the third question—who is the Japanese politician, how does he behave, and why—that Professor Yanaga really comes to grips with a little-studied subject and presents a picture of considerable interest and detail...

...Author The Left Wing in Wiley...

...Reviewed by Evelyn Colbert By Chitoshi Yanaga...

...In dealing with Japanese political behavior, on the other hand, Professor Yanaga enters a field that has thus far been too little explored...

...Second, how has the machinery of government and politics developed, how is it constructed, and what particularly Japanese needs and objectives is it designed to serve...

...Japanese Politics...

...The result has been a treatment of Japanese governmental structure and political history that is more detailed than the general reader requires as background for the author's analysis of Japanese politics and that yet remains, for the more specialized reader, a familiar summary of material that has been covered more searchingly and in greater detail elsewhere...

...408 pp...

...While noting the unification of the non-Communist Left into a single Socialist party and the merger of the conservative parties into the Liberal Democratic party as important steps toward the achievement of a stable two-party system, Professor Yanaga feels that a genuine and enduring two-party system is likely to come about only as a result of "more basic changes in ideas and attitudes not only with regard to and in the parties but in the social milieu...

...7.50...

...Although some knowledge of each of these topics is undoubtedly essential to an understanding of Japanese politics, it is perhaps unfortunate that the author chose to deal with all three within the limits of one volume...

...What he has to say here is of great interest, although there is far too little of it...

...He cites particularly such factors as the craving for action and novelty, reflected politically in the rapid establishment of competing organizations, as well as the intense personal loyalties that operate at the expense of loyalty to a more abstract organization or principle and result in incessant factionalization...

...The author of Japan Since Perry, Professor Yanaga is eminently qualified as historian, political scientist, and long-time observer of the Japanese political scene to produce a work of considerable interest to both the general reader and the specialist...