New Shorenstein APARC book analyzes the rise, policies, and fall of Japan's DPJ

dpj wide

Just a couple of weeks after last month's defeat of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in the upper-house elections comes the timely publication of Japan under the DPJ: The Politics of Transition and Governance, a new book from the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, coedited by Kenji E. Kushida (Takahashi Research Associate in Japanese Studies) and Phillip Y. Lipscy (Thomas Rohlen Center Fellow).

Japan under the DPJ endeavors to explain the DPJ's rapid rise to power in 2009, examines the limited policy change that occured while the party was in power, and analyzes what led to the party's dramatic fall in 2012. The volume consists of 14 chapters addressing electoral structure, party recruitment and partisianship, DPJ domestic and foreign policy, and the DPJ's response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Japan under the DPJ is available for purchase now from Brookings Institution Press; you can also download the table of contents and introductory chapter from the related publication link, below.