THE GOVERNMENT OF MODERN JAPAN: INTEREST GROUPS IN JAPANESE POLITICS Other Interest Groups: Professional Associations |
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Gerald L. Curtis :: There are also interest groups, powerful interest groups, organized among professionals. The Japan Medical Association, the Japan Teacher’s Union, the Japan Dentist’s Association, and many other professional groups have organized interest groups that lobby hard to try to get the interests of their members served by government policy. This, too, makes Japan look very similar to the United States and other countries in terms of its interest groups. The difference between Japan and the U.S., in particular, is that some other interests which are well organized in the United States are not well organized at all in Japan. Environmental movements, the consumer movement, women’s groups are much weaker in Japan than they are in the U.S., so that political power tends to revolve around these traditional interest groups, particularly in business and among farmers and some professional associations. |
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