POLITICS, POWER, AND PERSONALITIES IN THE PREFECTURAL GOVERNMENT OF KYOTO: A STUDY OF THE JAPANESE LOCAL POLITICS

This is a detailed study of the power structure and the political process in Kyoto politics within the overall context of the national power structure. The study focuses on the linkages between local and national politics, studies of which have so far been largely neglected. It is assumed in this study that power is limited to those who have attained top positions in a certain number of groups--political, administrative, or economic, while the rank-and-file in their own groups and the leaders of other groups do not influence on the course of events.;The overwhelming number of books written in Japanese on the subject of local government have been descriptive legal-institutional studies, which do not necessarily reflect the reality of the political process on the local level. They, therefore, tend to lack the explanatory adequacy of how the political system actually works in the Japanese socio-cultural environment. For this reason, this study seeks to find the missing link between normative studies and reality with more emphasis on the analysis of the political process and the political role of both incumbent and counter elites as distinct from the masses. The study examines the political life of Japan in the cultural as well as in the historical context. Otherwise, the prevailing forces that determine the attitudes, beliefs, sentiments, and actions of its people as well as the realities of social change cannot be understood. The study also shows that Japanese society with its counter-culture and subcultures is far more complex than is at first apparent.