Political Transformation of Japan and Europe

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This research project examined very rapid and drastic transformations in Japanese and European politics, focusing upon the three aspects : (1) party realignment observed in changing voters' party supports and shifting coalition buildings among the political parties, (2) the restructuring of political economy, particularly in the area of political intervention into the economic activities as well as the restructuring of the labor market and the welfare institutions, and (3) progresses and stagnations in regional integration in Europe and East Asia.The problems are complex and varied among various regions and countires, and the individual participants in this project have explored these varieties in his/her papers. The following generalizations, however, have drawn from this research project. Golobalization mostly due to the revolutions of information technologies, the collapse of the Soviet block, and the comeback of American military and economic hegemonies In the 1990s resulted in the further "re introduction" of market economy in Japan and tire western European nations. This has inevitably involved party realingnent in each county, the restructuring of the government-society relations and progressive regional integration. On the other hand, these general trends have been counterbalanced by the differences between Japan and Europe as well as those among the individual nation states. Those differences are mostly due to histrical legacies built in as the institutional arrangements such as the characteristics of the governmental and the market structure in each nations.