Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

SOCIAL JUSTICE, HUMAN RIGHTS AND CIVIL SOCIETY
JAPANESE CIVIL SOCIETY IN COMBATTING CORRUPTION
Pornthip Apisitwasana
INTRODUCTION
The ultimate goal of this research was to seek ways to
combat corruption and poverty in Thai society. This
remained the same. However, Japanese civil society has
other mechanisms to combat corruption, both directly
and indirectly. An Information Disclosure Law (IDLs)
is only one of several mechanisms that Japanese civil
society utilizes. The study could not complete its goal
unless research on other mechanisms was also done.
Therefore, the subject was broadened.
This research attempted to survey mechanisms that
Japanese civil society has utilized within the Japanese
legal and social context. These mechanisms will be
treated as lessons for the social movement in Thailand.
The progress of the Corruption Perception Index (CPI)
is proof of the intention to combat corruption. In the
case of Japan, Prime Minister J. Koizumi has served as
Japan’s prime minister since 2001. Generally speaking,
Japan’s CPI score has improved during this time. The
CPI score of 2005 was better than 2000’s 0.90 score.
Not only the political sector but also citizens have
taken part in this progress.
Citizens have the right to be sceptical about corruption
and take a main role in oversight. Those with
political power have the duty to support such citizen
participation.
Table 1: Japan’s CPI Score from 1995 to 2005.
Year Prime Minister Score
1995 T. Murayama
T. Murayama &
6.72 0
1996 R. Hashimoto 7.05 0.33
1997 R. Hashimoto 6.57 -0.48
1998 R. Hashimoto & K. Obuchi 5.80 -0.77
1999 K. Obuchi 6.00 0.20
2000 K. Obuchi & Y. Mori 6.40 0.40
2001 Y. Mori & J. Koizumi 7.10 0.70
2002 J. Koizumi 7.10 0.00
2003 J. Koizumi 7.00 -0.10
2004 J. Koizumi 6.90 -0.10
2005 J. Koizumi 7.30 0.40
Source: Transparency International.
Diff. from
the preceeding yr
389
The first part of my research depicts the important
situation with regards to corruption—the Iron Triangle
and civil society as well as NPO legislation during the
Lost Decade (1990s). The second part explains the pork
barrel and amakudari as tools for corruption. The third
part describes the mechanisms utilized by Japanese civil
society to deal with corruption. Two tables are provided
that give information on civil society’s activities. The first
is a chronology that includes all activities and all citizen
groups, providing details of activities and outcomes or
later situations, if any, thereof. The second provides
details of activities and mechanism or tools which civil
society utilized. The information disclosure request suit
and resident suit are included in the same table.
THE CORRUPTION PROBLEM IN JAPAN
The Lost Decade
An explanatory model of Japanese economy can be set
forth in three phases:
1) the “success” of the Japanese economy from the
mid-1970s to the mid-1980s,
2) the “bubble economy” from the latter half of the
1980s to the early 1990s, and
3) the “failure” of Japanese economy since the early
1990s.
As described by a professor of the University of Tokyo’s
Institute of Social Science, Prof. Takeo Kikkawa, who
researched the “Lost Decade” Project of the Institute
(2005, 3), the 1990s were not just a “difficult period”
but became a “lost decade” because Japan lacked the
ability to carry out vital reforms. This “Lost Decade”
was characterized by economic stagnation, political
convolution and dead-end reform.
Jeff Kingston, a history professor at Temple University
Japan, (2004, 1) states that the 1990s were a period
when the economy imploded, the asset bubble
collapsed, banks teetered on the eage of insolvency,
unemployement skyrocketed, suicides increased and
the leaders of Japan, Inc. were tarnished by exposes of
corruption.
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows