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Japan government//USA government.....

Koji

後輩
16 Apr 2002
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The ancient Japanese government was a monarchy . The Emperor had complete control. Now Japan is Republic-Democracy . Like the USA . So how similar is Japanese government with American government ??? I think the similarities in government are very Different in specifics but in general ... ya know. Japan has a constitution like us . So what goes on in the Japanese government ???
 
Like most ancient civilizations, Japan started as a Matriarchy and moved into a Patriarchy with the corresponding shift of Empress to Emperor.

The power of the Emperor fell in the Heian period, which is roughly 940AD to 1040 AD. From there, the title of Shogun slowly began to become more and more powerful. Shogun means "Barbarian subduing generalissimo.... or something like that" Barbarian meaning people outside of the Capital. At that time being Kyoto latter with a split-Capital system with the Emperor in Kyoto enjoying life doing nothing and Edo (Tokyo) being the centre of the real government.

During the Meiji period ... Japan sent out commissions across the known world and looked at the US, German, and England governments. I think that the Japanese chose the German form since German was slowly building up to WWI. And Japan, too, being a latecomer, wanted to get into the action.

Modern-Day Japan is a .... hmmm ... a Republic? Definitely not really a Democracy. Actually, Japan is more of a 2 system of Chinese confusions and Republic. With Beuracrates having all the power and the Politicians being the minions of the bureaucrats. It's really confusing since there are no checks and balances that the American government has.
Everything is top-down, everything being done for the people in the name of the people but in the best interest of the civil servant.

This last election was elected on a popular vote, but first, the ruling party got to choose who they would allow winning.

In many ways, the political setup is like that of England.

So, basically, Japan and the US would be only similar in a very few areas. Voting and a constitution.

McArthur and his team wrote the current constitution.

I need to head off to work. I'll try to expand more later. So if you have questions, please fire away.
 
Actually, the Japanese modelled their original "democratic" system off the Germans (at the time under Bismark) because in that system the Elected policitions had no real power, In japan this was transfered over to give the men behind the throne the power.
 
Two annotations: considering the historical epoch Bismarck's reforms were indeed progressive (just think of the social insurance he introduced), thus a model for other countries.

Secondly, as far as I know Japanese civil law is still modelled after the German BGB (Buergerliches Gesetzbuch, the German Civil Code).
 
Possibly about the civil code. It's pretty esoteric and many TV shows are on TV working a such and such situations.

Possibly the Meiji men liked those reforms but ... I think it was a bit more related to the idea of catching up in the colonial world.

The men behind the throne..... "nobody" ... the throne is and for the most part a puppet chair.

The meiji men like Ito Hirobumi held power after retirement under the nominer "GENRO".
 
Yes, the Genro, like Sato and Ito, were who I meant, I just forgot the group's name :)

By the way, for anyone interested in this kind of thing, the book "The Yamato Dynasty" is a good book on the subject.
 
I agree. I enjoyed reading the book, but I am sure it doesn't reveal any sensational facts to Old Japan Hands (which I'm definitely not! :emoji_wink: )
 
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