Political Culture and Socialization Project: Japan, Part 1

Agents of Political Socialization
Agents of political socialization refer to the separate factors that influence a person’s political opinion. In Japan high education, family, religion, and the media are agents of political socialization.

Legitimacy
The Japanese government gains its legitimacy based on their Constitution, which was ratified in 1947. Because of the strong cultural heritage of the Japanese, there also is a constitutional monarchy that includes an emperor; currently Akihito. The monarchy aspect of Japan is, of course, hereditary while the parliamentary aspect is controlled under democratic elections.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html

Parochial
Parochial political culture is a part of political culture in which citizens have little awareness of the presence of a central government. Because of the large Japanese population as well as the relatively small size of the country, there isn’t an abundance of communities not aware of their government. It’s possible that there are small tribes or villages on the remote islands surrounding the mainland, but as one of the most advanced nations in the world, the amount of people unaware of government is insignificant.

Participants
Participants are a part of the political culture in which citizens take an active role in their government and thus are not only active in the output of government, but the input as well. Like the United States and other major democracies, the number of participants is particularly high.

Subjects
Subjects are a part of the political culture in which citizens obey the government and its laws, but don’t participate in the government. Around 30% of Japanese citizens are subjects, according to the graph provided by Sean Richley, Ph.D. This is actually an improvement from data collected earlier.
http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-plaza/e-sdialogue/03_data/Dr_Richey.pdf

Political Culture
Political culture is “the traditional orientation of the citizens of a nation towards politics, affecting their perceptions of political legitimacy.” The political culture in Japan is fairly different from that in western nations as Japan has been able to modernize while retaining its historical culture, which “remains manifest in Japanese politics and economics.” One large aspect of the political culture in Japan is how it is taught that the group should come before in individual, which I find interesting considering Japan is a democracy.
http://wps.prenhall.com/hss_roskin_countries_8/0,8011,842019-,00.html

Political Socialization
Political socialization is “a concept concerning the study of the developmental processes by which children and adolescents acquire political cognition, attitudes and behaviors.” In Japan, the most influential agent that affects socialization is without a doubt higher education.

Political Subculture
The political subculture in Japan is, like in America, broken down into various political parties. However, as of late more and more Japanese have tried to distance themselves from political parties. The two major parties are the Democratic Party (DPJ) and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The ethnic subcultures in Japan are divided as follows: 98.5% Japanese, 0.5% Korean, 0.4% Chinese, and 0.6% other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Japan