Includes bibliographical references (p. 380-416) and index.

The institutional landscape of Japanese politics / Alisa Gaunder -- The Liberal Democratic Party: an explanation of its successes and failures / Steven R. Reed -- The Democratic Party of Japan: development, organization and programmatic profile / Patrick Koellner -- The rationale for coalition government / J.A.A. Stockwin -- Prime ministerial leadership / Tomohito Shinoda -- Election systems and campaign rules / Ray Christensen -- Money in Japanese politics: regulation and reform / Matthew Carlson -- The influence of voters / Sherry L. Martin -- Democratizing the law in Japan / Jonathan David Marshall -- Local government in Japan / Jun Saito and Kyohei Yamada -- State and civil society in Japan / Yuko Kawato, Robert J. Pekkanen and Hidehiro Yamamoto -- The Japanese conception of citizenship / Yumiko Mikanagi -- Volunteer organizations (re)making democracy in Japan / Mary Alice Haddad -- Civil society and the internet / Isa Ducke -- The labor movement / Lonny E. Carlile -- The women's movements / Ki-young Shin -- The rise (and fall?) of social equality: the evolution of Japan's welfare state / Gregory J. Kasza -- Policies for an aging/low fertility society / Leonard Schoppa -- Gender-related social policy / Hiroko Takeda -- Japanese immigration policy / Ken Haig -- Japan's environmental politics and change: local, national and global / Peng Er Lam -- The evolution of the Japanese policymaking system / Gregory W. Noble -- The politics of economic reform / Aurelia George Mulgan -- The politics of scarcity: fixing Japan's public finances / Gene Park -- The politics and implications of postal reform / Patricia L. Maclachlan -- Japan and East Asian economic regionalism / Mireya Solís -- The haunt of history in Japan's foreign relations / Jennifer Lind -- The politics of national security / Andrew L. Oros -- Japan-U.S. relations / Michael J. Green and Nicholas Szechenyi -- Japan-China relations: structure or management? / Ming Wan -- Drifting apart? Japan-EU relations / Julie Gilson -- The other Rashomon story: international norms and continuing constructions of Japaneseness / David Leheny.