Table of Contents:
  • 1. An overview of postwar Japanese politics / Steven R. Reed and Kay Shimizu
  • 2. Avoiding a two-party system : the Liberal Democratic Party versus Duverger's Law / Steven R. Reed and Kay Shimizu
  • 3. Has the electoral-system reform made Japanese elections party-centered? / Ko Maeda
  • 4. Pork barrel politics and partisan realignment in Japan / Jun Saito
  • 5. Declining electoral competitiveness in Japan : postreform trends and theoretical pessimism / Robert J. Weiner
  • 6. How Koizumi won / Chao-Chi Lin
  • 7. How long are Koizumi's coattails? Party-leader visits in the 2005 election / Kenneth Mori McElwain
  • 8. Two steps forward, one step back : Japanese postal privatization as a window on political and policymaking change / Patricia L. Maclachlan
  • 9. The slow government response to Japan's bank crisis : a new interpretation / Ethan Scheiner and Michio Muramatsu
  • 10. Stealing elections : a comparison of election-night corruption in Japan, Canada, and the United States / Ray Christensen and Kyle Colvin
  • 11. The puzzle of the Japanese gender gap in Liberal Democratic Party support / Barry C. Burden
  • 12. Women running for national office in Japan : are Koizumi's female "children" a short-term anomaly or a lasting phenomenon? / Alisa Gaunder
  • 13. Surrogate representation : building sustainable linkage structures in contemporary Japanese politics / Sherry L. Martin
  • 14. Japanese politics in the Koizumi era : temporary anomaly or a paradigm shift? / Kenneth Mori McElwain and Steven R. Reed.