Five Men at the Akasaka Prince

On April 2, 2000, Prime Minister Obuchi Keizō was taken to the hospital with a stroke. That night, five senior figures of the Liberal Democratic Party met at the Akasaka Prince Hotel in Tokyo: Aoki Mikio, Nonaka Hiromu, Murakami Masakuni, Kamei Shizuka and Mori Yoshirō. They settled on Mori as Obuchi’s successor. The cabinet resigned on April 4, and the Mori cabinet took office on April 5.

The press called the five the gonin-gumi, the group of five, and their meeting a misshitsu, closed-room, decision. Critics said that the way the successor was chosen left large questions about the government’s legitimacy.

The Great White Tower

Yamasaki Toyoko’s novel Shiroi kyotō (The Great White Tower) appeared in the weekly magazine Sunday Mainichi from 1963 to 1965. At its center is the election of a new professor of surgery at a university hospital. The surgeon Zaizen Gorō works behind the scenes, with money and the backing of his father-in-law, to win the votes of the faculty before the ballot. Both camps try everything to win the votes of a third candidate’s supporters.

A film version starring Tamiya Jirō was released in 1966. The novel was also adapted for television in 1967, 1978, 1990, 2003 and 2019.

Prior Review by the Party

Before the Japanese cabinet approves a government bill, the bill is first approved inside the governing Liberal Democratic Party. This is the jizen shinsa-sei, the prior review system.

The usual view dates it to a letter of 1962 from Akagi Munenori, chairman of the party’s General Council, to Chief Cabinet Secretary Ōhira Masayoshi. One study argues that it began in 1955, when the party was founded and approval by its Policy Research Council became a condition for a cabinet decision on a bill.

The Vice-Ministers’ Meeting

Until 2009, the top civil servants of the ministries, the administrative vice-ministers, met on the day before each cabinet meeting, normally twice a week. They met to settle the items for the cabinet, such as bills, cabinet orders and appointments.

On September 17, 2009, the day after the Democratic Party of Japan government took office, the meeting held its last session, to confirm its own abolition. In 2012, the Abe cabinet renamed an existing liaison meeting of the ministries the Vice-Ministers’ Liaison Meeting.

The Managing Directors’ Meeting

Many large Japanese companies have a jōmukai, a meeting of the managing directors. Unlike the board of directors and the shareholders’ meeting, it is not required by law.

Japanese encyclopedias describe it as the place where matters that the board will formally decide are discussed in substance. There, nearly all important management decisions are made.

The Vocabulary of Consensus

Nemawashi (根回し): going around the roots. In gardening, cutting the spreading roots of a tree one or two years before it is moved, so that fine new roots grow. At work, preparing a negotiation or meeting in advance so that it goes smoothly.

Sannin yoreba Monju no chie (三人寄れば文殊の知恵): when three people gather, they have the wisdom of Monju. Ordinary people who consult together in a group of three produce excellent ideas. Monju is the bodhisattva of wisdom.

Rentai sekinin (連帯責任): joint responsibility. A whole group answers for what one of its members did.

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