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ID: 100267

Cultivating rice and votes: the institutional origins of agricultural protectionism in Japan / Horiuchi, Yusaku; Saito, Jun

Horiuchi, Yusaku	Journal Article
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Publication

2010.

Summary/Abstract

We explore in this article an institutional foundation of agricultural protectionism in Japan, a country long recognized as resisting international pressures to open up its rice market. Using our qualitative analysis of postwar politics of agricultural protectionism and a simple formal model, we argue that farmers in Japan have stronger incentives to mobilize electoral support for the governing party in multimember district systems than in single-member district systems, because the marginal effects of mobilization on policy benefits are different under these electoral systems. Our empirical findings corroborate this claim and provide implications for the gradual changes in Japan's farm policies occurring after the electoral reform in 1994.

Key Words

Japan ; Mobilization ; Protectionism ; Electoral Systems ; Rice ; Natural Experiment ;
SNTV ; Agrarian Politics ; MMD

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ID: 092264

Infrastructure as the magnet of power: explaining why Japanese legislators left and returned to the LDP / Saito, Jun

Saito, Jun	Journal Article
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Publication

2009.

Summary/Abstract

By examining party-switching decisions among members of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), this article shows how distributive policy programs exclusively available to the governing party attract incumbents to the party in power. In a stable electoral environment where the government party is likely to stay in power, legislators elected from infrastructure-poor constituencies are effectively tied to the party. However, when the party's electoral prospects are uncertain, legislators behave more sincerely and switch parties to match their policy preferences. It is also found that defectors elected from infrastructure-poor constituencies tended to return to the LDP once the party installed a stable surplus coalition.

Key Words

Japan ; Liberal Democratic Party ; Infrastructure Investment ; Party Switching ; Partisan Realignment

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ID: 137208

Removing boundaries, losing connections: electoral consequences of local government reform in Japan / Horiuchi, Yusaku; Saito, Jun; Yamada, Kyohei

Horiuchi, Yusaku	Article
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Summary/Abstract

In this article we examine the role of local politicians in affecting national-level election outcomes by focusing on the drastic municipal mergers in Japan that took place in the early 2000s. Specifically, we argue that the political party that relies most extensively on local politicians' efforts for electoral mobilization and monitoring will suffer an electoral slump when municipalities are merged and the number of municipal politicians is swiftly reduced. We empirically show that municipalities with a history of mergers exhibit significantly lower voter turnout and obtain a smaller vote share for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in national elections when compared to other municipalities without an experience of mergers. This result indicates that municipal politicians are indispensable human resources for LDP candidates running for the national parliament.

Key Words

Decentralization ; Election ; Japan ; LDP ; Local Regime ; Municipal Merger

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