NEWS & EVENTS

On April 24, 2020, the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies | SAIS Professor Dr. William Brooks hosted Mr. Makoto Kuroyabu, a Visiting Scholar of the Reischauer Center through a Zoom webinar where he discussed Japan’s dynamic policy making process since the 1990s and regulatory reform prescriptions for making the system more efficient.

Mr. Kuroyabu first provided a detailed overview of the bureaucratic structure of Japan, such as the characteristics of the Kantei-Shudou and Kantei-Kanryo. He then laid out the obstacles that have impeded Japan’s policy process reform such as the limited capacity of the Prime Minister’s office, political scandals, deterioration of opposition legislature parties, and bureaucratic malfunction.

Mr. Kuroyabu also delineated the differences in policy formation between the U.S. and Japan while also proposing examples of regulatory reform including the capacity and number of bureaucrats as well as the stimulating of more private investments for influencing policy formation. In the conclusion of his presentation, he then fielded questions from the audience regarding the impact of COVID-19 on future changes in the Japanese policy making process as well as the potential effects that policy regulatory reforms could have on Japanese female bureaucrats and policy makers.