THE GOVERNMENT OF MODERN JAPAN: THE PRIME MINISTER Limited Power |
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Gerald L. Curtis :: The Japanese prime minister doesn't have an independent constituency, like a U.S. President does, and he doesn't in effect really have independent powers apart from the party that has elected him. Whenever the majority party decides that it wants to change the prime minister, it can do so, simply by having another election in the lower house of the Diet and electing somebody else to be prime minister. So, constitutionally, the prime minister doesn't have as much independent power as, say, for example, the president of the United States does. But it's not only a matter of his formal power. In the Japanese political system, the prime minister, who is usually the leader of the majority party, or the leader of the largest party in a coalition government, doesn't have the same degree of power as, say, typically the prime minister has in Great Britain, because the system, the party system, is so different. |
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