Prime ministerial leadership in Japan and the UK: sources of power and influence

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The context for this project is a timely one. Traditionally, and in the simplest of terms, the UK prime minister has been characterized as relatively strong and the Japanese prime minister as relatively weak. However, we are currently faced with the opposite situation. Since 2010, the UK has experienced political turbulence in the form of coalition governments, the fallout from the Brexit referendum, and regular speculation over the future of current incumbent, Prime Minister Theresa May. In contrast, since 2012 Japan has moved away from the 'revolving door' of prime ministers that characterized Japanese politics between 2006 and 2012 and instead has experienced political stability under the leadership of Abe Shinzo. Despite ongoing political scandal and societal concerns over some of his more nationalist policies, Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has secured a string of landslide elections since 2012. Abe himself recently secured his re-election as LDP leader, and de facto prime minister, until 2021 by which time he will become Japan's longest serving prime minister. The reversal in fortunes between the two countries could not be more stark.This project aims to address questions surrounding prime ministerial leadership in these two leading parliamentary systems, the UK and Japan, that have often been overlooked in the comparative literature. Concretely, it aims to explore the changing nature and role of UK and Japanese prime ministers since the turn of the millennium as each country has faced the challenges of the global financial crisis, domestic political and economic problems, and rising traditional and non-traditional security threats.This is a relevant comparison as Japan and the UK share similar goals, as the UK-Japan Joint Vision statement set out during May's visit to Tokyo in August 2017: "Japan and the UK are global strategic partners, sharing common interests as outward-looking and free-trading island nations with a global reach, committed to the rules-based international system. We share the fundamental values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law".There has also been considerable interest at practitioner level to better understand each other's political systems given the similarities in parliamentary and party structures and processes. For example, the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research 2008 Symposium and the Chatham House UK-Japan Global Seminar Series. However, the academic literature has yet to get to grips with many of these issues, and Japan is often omitted in studies of Westminster/Westminster-style systems. The project therefore addresses the lack of detailed, systematic comparative studies of leadership in the UK and Japan.