Is there really a relationship between movies and politics?

Rashomon and Japanese politics

As I was watching the trailer of Rashomon, I was wondering why the images and the plot itself were familiar to me. Then I realized that Rashomon was inspired by the short story (“In a Grove” written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa) we read and analyzed once in my literature class. Looking back during that class, my initial thought was that the story was very Japanese in nature. The characters had this tendency to beat around the bush, and the confessions of the people involved were designed to protect their honor. At the end of my literature class we were made to ponder about the real killer of Kanazawa no Takehiko. I tried to read the story a few more times and still as a whole the testimonies do not make any sense. Looking at the testimonies individually was a different matter though, and each story points to a different suspect and gives us different clear views/perceptions as to what has really happened.

Thinking about how Rashomon is connected to Japanese politics is somewhat a Herculean task if only because at first glance there seems to be no connection at all. I skimmed through the syllabus again as if to look for an answer, and then suddenly the fact that we wouldn’t be asked irrelevant questions dawned on me. I realized that it isn’t exactly about the story and its characters, but the plot as a whole. Japanese politics is similar to Rashomon because of the different angles we can look from in order to understand Japanese politics fully.

Looking from various angles

Going back my story about the syllabus, I saw that there were four approaches in our pursuit to study Japanese politics. These four approaches are the Historical Approach, Socio-cultural approach, Institutional Approach, and the Rational Choice Approach. For me, these four approaches represent the different confessions of the witnesses in Rashomon. I believe that each approach provides a different story and a different understanding of the nature of Japanese politics.

Historical Approach

This approach offers a look at how Japanese Politics developed and emerged. Looking at the Historical Perspective helps people understand Japan based on the actual events that transpired throughout their history. Looking at historical data can provide a better look as to how political situations came to be. A hypothetical situation would be the low number of imports during the present day and Japan's isolationist policy during the Tokugawa period can be considered to have a cause-effect relationship.
(Example of work: Japanese Political History since the Meiji Renovation, 1868-2000 By Richard Sims)

Socio-cultural Approach

This approach is very useful in the sense that people interested in studying Japanese Politics can look at how the character of the Japanese people affects their decision-making and political structure. More importantly, it is essential to know how the Japanese think and feel about certain things such as their views on peace, structure, and other socio-cultural concepts in order to understand why the Japanese act the way they do now and the implications of these on their political decisions.
(Example of work: Japanese Political Culture by Takeshi Ishida)

Institutional Approach

From the root word, institution, this approach focuses on the structure of specific institutions, in this case political structures. I believe that this approach is useful in order to see how different structures operate and how effective are the policies and decisions that are rooted from the said institution. Sometimes this approach is used to compare two different institutions in order to see the effectiveness and merits of each type of institution, it isn't really a secret that different types of systems garner different types of actions from it leaders and servers...

(check out this book on google books)
(Example of work: Structure and Policy in Japan and the United States by Peter F. Cowhey, Mathew Daniel)

Rational Choice Approach

The final approach, I believe focuses on the leaders people select to be in office. The choices of people are important because this can show the trends as to which party is most favorable to win majority seats during the elections, or what kind of leaders people elect. In the Japanese case, this approach could be useful to know why the people have consistently supported the LDP.

(example of work: Institutions, Incentives and Electoral Participation in Japan by Yusaku Horiuchi)

Say what?!
All these approaches in studying politics are legitimate and quite insightful. The biggest contribution of Rashomon in politics is that it provided the concept that frameworks completely different from one another can be used to analyze political natures, events, and situations. These frameworks need not coincide or cooperate, it does not need to agree either. Each approach has its own merits, and can stand alone as a basis for analysis. Lastly, I believe that as much as possible all these approaches should really be used to study Japanese politics so that our knowledge on the subject matter wouldn't be enclosed into just one type of analysis.

The utilization and digestion of the knowledge we are about to gain in looking from various lenses is up to us, we should not have any biases but instead we should keep our minds open to the different approaches Japanese Politics will be presented to us...

Comparing can move mountains

I am better than You, Mine is better than Yours. As individuals, we always strive to become better, and in order to achieve this goal we go through our lives comparing things everyday. When we make choices and decisions we always compare the variables that we are supposed to consider.

Comparing has become routine and natural for us humans, we forget that it is one of the most basic forms of analysis that we use. We use comparisons to find out our preferences, to show our advantages, our weak points, etc. Whether it is in pursuance of praise or answers to the most difficult of problems, comparison is always involved. Thus it is safe to say that, we are living in a world driven by comparisons…

Delving into the realm of comparative politics…

What is comparative politics? From my understanding, it is the comparison of the political systems of countries and also identifying their similarities and differences. I also learned that comparative politics explores processes, and regularities among political systems. The process also involves searching for trends, changes in patterns, and it ultimately aims to provide general propositions that describe and explain such trends.

Some information can only be obtained and analyzed through comparing countries. Based on what I have read and learned, I can say that comparison does not only occur in the outer political structure, but more importantly it involves the comparison between the applications of political systems. Comparison is done to see which system is most effective. It may also be done to strengthen the weaknesses of certain countries, one example that I can think of right now is the application of democratic practices. The Philippines can make a comparative study between democracy in the Philippines and democracy in the United States. This can serve as a learning tool for the government, in order to improve loopholes in the current system.

It is also very useful and important to compare countries, in order for a country to see its political system in a different perspective. As I have mentioned as individuals people will always consider things based on their biases. Countries can gain better perspective by looking at how they can fair with or against other countries.

Studying Japanese politics

The most relevant field of comparative politics that I found for the purpose of this blog is the study of one country which naturally, focuses on a single country or institution. In this type of comparison it is necessary to put the study into a larger comparative framework. Meaning reasons as to why the subject is important and where it fits in a larger context should be specified.

I say this is most relevant because our subject deals with one specific country only which is Japan. Studying the Japanese government can be very useful because we can learn a lot from analyzing its complexities and certain unique aspects. What follows are some facts (the list is not limited to what is written hereafter) that makes studying Japanese politics very meaningful and interesting.

First, Japan is the only country in the world which is still ruled by an emperor. As impressive as this fact sounds, it must be noted that the power of the Emperor is just nominal. Real political power belongs to the Prime Minister and other members of the Diet.

Second, significant fact is the one-party domination in terms of politics in the country. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been in power since 1955, and has experienced minimal resistance. It is interesting to note that this single party dominance is not imposed on the people, but rather it has been embraced by the people willfully.

Third is the structure of Japanese Politics. The framework is called a parliamentary representative democratic monarchy. It consists of an executive branch, legislative branch, political parties, and the judicial branch.

Fourth, is their concept of loyalty and pride when it comes to politics. Over the years there have been resignations in the Prime Minister position due to controversies. For example the resignation of Prime Minister Hosokawa in 1994, the resignation of Prime Minister Hashimoto because of the poor electoral showing by the LDP in those Upper House elections, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's resignation from office in 2007. The Japanese are known for being very self-righteous and yet it is notable that corruption and controversies also exists in their government.

Lastly, it is still very interesting how Japan has become one of the most powerful countries in the world, and yet it has no standing defensive forces. Recently there have been moves to change the constitution and re-establish the Japanese army.

In conlusion, studying Japanese politics does not only spur the interest of its learners and bring about thought provoking concepts, it is also very useful in breaking stereotypical notions (both good and bad) that we all had about Japan and her people.

references used for this entry: (feel free to explore them)

Politics of Japan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Japan

Comparative Politics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_politics

Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics by Todd Landman: http://books.google.com/books?id=JwO4RMxfHxMC&pg=PR3&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1

Governing Japan by James Arthur Ainscow Stockwin: http://books.google.com/books?id=JwO4RMxfHxMC&pg=PR3&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1

Japanese Politics and Society Final: http://books.google.com/books?id=JwO4RMxfHxMC&pg=PR3&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1