Why do they rule Japan - The Nature of Japanese Elites

von: Sabine Putzgruber

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION  4

2. ELITE THEORY  5

2.1 Definition  5
2.2 Gaetano Mosca and Vilfredo Pareto  7
2.3 C. Wright Mills  9
2.4. G. Lowell Field and John Higley  10

3. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN JAPAN  10

3.2 The Corporate Elite  11
3.1 The Ministry Elite  12
3.3 The Political Elite  13

4. SOCIAL NETWORKS OF JAPANESE POWER ELITE  13

4.1. Tokyo law faculty and it’s elite outcome  14
4.2. Social Clubs/Business Organizations  14
4.3. Family connections  15

5. THEORY  15

6. EXPLORING THE JAPANESE DEMOCRACY  19

7. CONCLUSION  21

8. REFERENCES  22

1. Introduction

In the following pages I will try to examine the nature of Japanese elite´s. It interests me how they are composed, how they work and persist but also why they do the same. For that I will try to look into elite theory from Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto, G. Lowell Field and John Higley, C. Wright Mills and Harold D. Lasswell. My aim is to take bricks of their theories out and apply it to the Japanese national elite system. Therefore I will recognize the Iran Triangle of the Political, Corporate and Ministry elite as Harold Kerbo and John A. McKinstry use it (Kerbo/McKinstry 1995). First of all I will define the terms that will be used in this work and then look into the theories of scientists I talked about above. In the next chapter I go right to Japan to get a small insight of the elite-structure there. After examining the Corporate, Ministry and Political Elite separately I look do the factors that hold them together more closely. The education system, social clubs and business organizations as also the very important family connections. With some questions Lasswell asked for his work, I bring in further thoughts as the theory and fact go together. So my questions are what is the elite in Japan? Of what elements does it consists and how does it persist? What’s wrong with this democratic system organization, if there is something wrong with it. Is it going to change in the next years or is it likely to persist for a very long time, over generations? Is there a better system for Japan? And what would that be?

I can see that this is not going to be a very sorrow study since the work is taking place in the frame of a student seminar but I take it as an opportunity to get at least some insight in the works of those scientists. The part of applying those theories to Japan, a country I studied only for a short time and never have been to, can only be done with the consciousness of labeling it as a students try. Still I hope that some valid thoughts will come out of the following pages and I hopefully will have time to further this study in the future, as it really sounds interesting to me. It took me some time to find the right theme for this seminar work, as I wanted to write on Japanese society but didn’t want to cover the exact same things as Prof. Harold Kerbo did in his books „Modern Japanese Society“ (Kerbo/McKinstry 1997) and „Who rules Japan“ (Kerbo/McKinstry 1995). I also hope that I didn’t only meet my own interests but also the expectations of the seminar1, this work is done for. In the following pages I will like to show some ways for the elite´s in Japan to hold there positions for themselves and their children but also show how an ordinary person (mostly out of the middle class or lower elite) is able to rise into elite status. This is just theory out of secondary literature and lacks any empirical study. Based on empirical research of social mobility or status attainment in Japan it hopefully could be verified.

2. Elite Theory

2.1 Definition

Before even starting is has to be cleared what terms I am going to use. Many different combinations would be possible to describe the elite I want to talk about. Political Elite, Political Class, Ruling Elite, Ruling Class, National Elite or Power Elite are all terms used by scientists describing the top “ruling” minority of countries2. Even though T. B. Bottomore is coming to the conclusion to use the concept of political class I am not following him (Bottomore 1974:15). To use the term ruling or political class it would imply through the definition of class that we speak about the class who hold the most important means of production. With this term we would speak of a cohesion group united through the same economic interests and because they are in conflict with other classes. Threw that the solidarity of this ruling class is growing steadily. By using the term “ruling elite” it doesn’t say right away how the power of the minority is consisting (Bottomore 1974:38f). Dividing the Japanese society in classes is not my aim but analyzing it as a whole to pick out the structures that hold the powerful people at the top.

Japan is a democracy and for that an elite is existing and looked over by the masses. As for the first elite-theorists this wasn’t that clear. Democracy wasn’t such a positive Other forms of ruling peoples, like not centralized communities etc. are not included. concept as it is viewed on mostly today. By reading through Vilfredo Paretos “System der Allgemeinen Soziologie” you can feel the negative emphasis on the new democratic theories, often viewed only as one step of the mass-movement of the time, namely the marxist-socialist tendencies that have to be fought anyway (Eisermann 1962). That seems pretty understandable as the two concepts contradict itself in two ways. First sees the elite-theory the different individual talent and the democratic idea is more fixed on the fundamental equality of human beings. Second contradicts at least at first sight the concept of an elite minority ruling the democratic concept of a majority rule. Karl Mannheim sees, after a time viewing the elite -theories very skeptically, a possibility that they are not mutually exclusive. He says: ”Die wirkliche Gestaltung der Politik liegt in den Händen von Eliten; das bedeutet jedoch nicht, dass die Gesellschaft nicht demokratisch wäre. Denn damit man von Demokratie sprechen kann, genügt es, dass die einzelnen Bürger, auch wenn sie sich nicht ständig an der Regierung beteiligen können, wenigstens die Möglichkeit haben, ihre Wünsche in gewissen Zeitabständen zum Ausdruck zu bringen.” (The real political work lies in the hands of elite’s, which doesn’t mean that society is not democratic. To speak of a democratic society, it is enough to say that every person of that state has the possibility to speak out their wishes and concerns in certain time periods.) (Bottomore 1974:17). The option to participate must be a given, if only theoretically for everybody. Also Gaetano Mosca discusses this point. I will come back to this in the chapter on democracy.

[...]

1 The seminar „Social Stratification“ was held by Prof. Harold Kerbo during the Summer Semester 2003 at the University of Vienna, where he was a guest professor in the department of Political Sciences.

2 I am speaking of nations with a state system that has been studied by the various theorists of western origins.