Publication

This brief examines governance issues and challenges in a political system now dominated by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). The author outlines the DPJ's governance reform agenda, its strategic and tactical aims and milestones, as well as the agenda's closeness to DPJ's stated climate policy goals. The author asserts that the DPJ government is likely to continue pouring significant political capital into the climate change issue, also as a means to establish its own power over major ministries and other renegade elements. The author concludes by outlining limitations to the government's reform and climate change agenda.