How Does the Japanese Prime Minister Lead Policy Formation within the LDP?

• In Event: Further Expansion of the Japanese Prime Minister’s Power

Abstract

Many studies have demonstrated that the Japanese Prime Minister has expanded his power in policymaking since the two institutional reforms: electoral reform in 1994 and administrative reform in 2001. Most of these studies have focused on the effects of these reforms on the role of the Japanese Prime Minister within the government, but less academic attention has been paid to the role of the prime minister as the president of the LDP.

The LDP has managed a preliminary examination system (Jizenshinsa) since the 1950s. That is, the party examines all draft bills and budgets before the cabinet submits them to the Diet; therefore, the cabinet only submits bills and budgets approved by the LDP to the Diet. Naturally, the backbenchers have prerogative and veto power in the policy formulation process.

Thus, this paper examines the role of the Prime Minister as LDP president in the preliminary examination process to understand recent Prime Minister-led policymaking. In particular, the paper notes that the Prime Minister, as the LDP president, can create special committees that directly report to him and elucidates that the LDP Prime Minister created more special committees in the 2010s than in the previous period. Using policy meeting data from the LDP, this study explores the roles of these committees in policy formulation and legislation processes since the second Abe Cabinet in 2012. It also examines whether the roles of such committees fluctuated during this period.

By clarifying the role played by the special committees, this article shows that the Prime Minister, as LDP president, projected firmer control over the policy formulation process within the LDP in the 2010s.

Author

• Jisun PARK, Okayama University