16. Japanese Government: The Cabinet.

On January 6, 2001, the national government was reorganized into the Cabinet Office and twelve ministries and agencies. This was a rather bold (отважный, смелый, храбрый) reformation, considering that the prior administrative structure was made up of the Prime Minister's Office and twenty-two ministries and agencies. The major changes accomplished through the reorganization were the establishment of the Cabinet Office (created from mainly the Prime Minister's Office, the Economic Planning Agency, and the Okinawa Development Agency), and the integration of some ministries and agencies into new ministries. So nowadays there exist the following: the Ministry of General Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Labor and Welfare, the Ministry of National Land and Transport. Additionally, three departments were merely renamed. Those are the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of the Treasury, and the Ministry of Economy and Industry.

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Management and Coordination Agency were combined to form the Ministry of General Affairs; the Ministry of Education and the Science and Technology Agency became the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology; the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Labor became the Ministry of Labor and Welfare; and the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Construction, the Hokkaido Development Agency, and the National Land Agency became the Ministry of National Land and Transport. Additionally, three departments were renamed, with the Environment Agency changing to the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Finance changing to the Ministry of the Treasury, and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry changing to the Ministry of Economy and Industry.

It is hoped that this large-scale restructuring will be a positive change, bringing about a government that is led by politicians, not bureaucrats, and is responsive to the voice of the people.

National government civil servants are divided into "special" and "regular" categories. Appointments in the special category are governed by political or other factors and do not involve competitive examinations. This category includes cabinet ministers, heads of independent agencies, members of the Self-Defense Forces, Diet officials, and ambassadors. The core of the civil service is composed of members of the regular category, who are recruited through competitive examinations. This group is further divided into junior service and upper professional levels, the latter forming a well-defined civil service elite.

17. Japanese Government: The Law Courts.

In Japan, the Courts are responsible for the administration of justice. Legal proceedings, whether criminal cases or civil cases, may be sought in the Supreme Court, the High Court, the District Court, the Summary Court or in Family Court.

Japan differs from American society, however, in that, in Japan, people prefer to resolve matters through negotiation without having to take them to court and many civil cases are apparently resolved through private settlement.

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Now let’s look more precisely at some parts of the Constitution. A distinctive feature of the constitution, and one that has generated as much controversy as the status of the emperor, is the Article 9 "No War" clause. It contains two paragraphs: the first states that the Japanese people "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes"; the second states that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential will never be maintained." The article's acceptance by the Japanese government may in part be explained by the desire to protect the imperial throne. Some Allied (страны - члены антигерманского блока времён Первой мировой войны, союзники по Антанте) leaders saw the emperor as the primary factor in Japan's warlike behavior. His assent to the "No War" clause weakened their arguments in favor of abolishing the throne or trying the emperor as a war criminal.

Article 9 has had broad implications for foreign policy, the institution of judicial review as exercised by the Supreme Court, the status of the Self-Defense Forces, and the nature and tactics of opposition politics. During the late 1980s, increases in government appropriations (ассигнования) for the Self-Defense Forces averaged more than 5 percent per year. By 1990 Japan was ranked third, behind the then-Soviet Union and the United States, in total defense expenditures, and the United States urged (побуждать) Japan to assume a larger share of the burden of defense of the western Pacific. Given these circumstances, some have viewed Article 9 as increasingly irrelevant. It has remained, however, an important brake on the growth of Japan's military capabilities. Despite the fading of bitter wartime memories, the general public, according to opinion polls, continued to show strong support for this constitutional provision.

"The rights and duties of the people" are prominently featured in the postwar constitution. Altogether, thirty-one of its 103 articles are devoted to describing them in considerable detail, reflecting the commitment to "respect for the fundamental human rights" of the Potsdam Declaration (Потсдамская декларация Опубликована 26 июля 1945 в Потсдаме от имени глав правительств США, Великобритании и Китая во время работы Потсдамской (Берлинской) конференции [Potsdam Conference ]. В ней содержалось требование к правительству Японии о безоговорочной капитуляции на предъявленных ему условиях). Although the Meiji Constitution had a section devoted to the "rights and duties of subjects," which guaranteed "liberty of speech, writing, publication, public meetings, and associations," these rights were granted "within the limits of law." Freedom of religious belief was allowed "insofar as it does not interfere with the duties of subjects".

Such freedoms are delineated (очерченный) in the postwar constitution without qualification. In addition, the later constitution guarantees freedom of thought and conscience; academic freedom; the prohibition of discrimination based on race, creed (вероисповедание), social status, or family origin; and a number of what could be called welfare rights: the right to "minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living"; the right to "equal education"; the "right and obligation to work" according to fixed standards of labor and wages; and the right of workers to organize. Equality of the sexes and the right of marriage based on mutual consent (in contrast to arranged marriage in the most traditional sense, in which families decide on the match) are also recognized. Limitations are placed on personal freedoms only insofar as they are not abused or interfere with public welfare.

Some United States origins of the constitution are revealed in the phraseology of Article 13, which states that the right of the people to "life, liberty, and the pur’suit (поиски) of happiness" shall be the "supreme consideration in legislation and other governmental affairs." It was with some awkwardness that such concepts were translated into Japanese. Yet the document goes further in enumerating rights than do the United States and many other Western constitutions. For example, the article pertaining (иметь отношение к (чему-л.)) to equality of the sexes (Article 14) bans sexual (as well as racial, religious, and social) discrimination "in political, economic, or social relations" as clearly as the proposed United States equal rights amendment, which failed to be ratified (утверждать) during the 1970s and 1980s. Unlike their Japanese counterparts, United States schoolteachers and university professors are not protected by a special provision on academic freedom (Article 23). Instead, American teaching and research activities are subsumed under the more general guarantee of freedom of speech in the First Amendment.