Political Corruption and Scandals in Japan - Hardcover

"Carlson and Reed offer a persuasive argument that structural reforms adopted in 1994 have improved Japanese politics, with greater transparency helping the media in its ability to reveal-and thereby discourage-political scandal." * Choice * "What's either the most significant or just your personal favorite Japanese political scandal? Either way, the competition is pretty fierce. Scandals have rocked Japanese politics throughout the post-war period, toppling Prime Ministers and even shaking the LDP's near-perpetual grip on power. Matthew M. Carlson and Steven R. Reed have written a book that will probably seem especially timely no matter when the reader comes to it. Even better, they have an important argument here: even as scandals have become more prominent in Japanese politics, corruption has been reduced as politicians and parties learn to avoid scandal-provoking behavior." -- Robert J. Pekkanen, Professor, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington "Political Corruption and Scandals in Japan is a very creative analysis of political scandals and corruption in a country with a bad reputation for them. With detailed empirical case analysis, the authors make a convincing case that different means are needed to combat each type of scandal or corruption. Carlson and Reed have produced an excellent systematic study of corruption and scandal and how to deal with it." -- Ellis Krauss, Professor Emeritus, School of Global Policy and Strategy, University of California, San Diego "Political Corruption and Scandals in Japan breaks ground in new and interesting areas of analysis in Japanese politics and comparative corruption. Carlson and Reed have a practicality and clarity in both their writing and their insights that make the book refreshing to read." -- Raymond Christensen, Associate Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of International Relations at Brigham Young University

Combining history with comparative politics, Matthew M. Carlson and Steven R. Reed take on political corruption and scandals, and the reforms designed to counter them, in post-World War II Japan. Political Corruption and Scandals in Japan makes sense of the scandals that have plagued Japanese politics for more than half a century and attempts to show how reforms have evolved to counter the problems. What causes political corruption to become more or less serious over time? they ask. The authors examine major political corruption scandals beginning with the early postwar period until the present day as one way to make sense of how the nature of corruption changes over time. They also consider bureaucratic corruption and scandals, violations of electoral law, sex scandals, and campaign finance regulations and scandals. In the end, Carlson and Reed write, though Japanese politics still experiences periodic scandals, the political reforms of 1994 have significantly reduced the levels of political corruption. The basic message is that reform can reduce corruption. The causes and consequences of political corruption in Japan, they suggest, are much like those in other consolidated democracies.