I almost choked on that one. Yeah, a democracy when there's a change of prime minister every single year or less, can surely be defined as "high functioning". It's as functional as the 4th Republic was in France.
> But they haven't committed any military aggression toward any country in more than 65 years.
They have unconditionally supported the US war operations in many theaters around the world, though. they have not taken directly taken part in conflict but support the US in their wars. That's just because their constitution prevents them to, not that they don't want it...
I don't judge the functioning of a democracy by how long a prime minister stays in office, I judge it by whether the citizens have the unfettered ability to vote, whether non-incumbents can get on the ballot, and whether election results accurate and largely free of fraud/corruption.
On all three of those metrics, Japan does better than, say, the United States.
If the will of the people is 'meh/who cares/none of the above', then that's a different problem, IMO.
> I judge it by whether the citizens have the unfettered ability to vote, whether non-incumbents can get on the ballot, and whether election results accurate and largely free of fraud/corruption.
Free of corruption, Japan? Really ? You have a twisted understanding of Japanese politics then.
And by the way, Japan is very much like the US in the fact that you have a bi-party system, with one party more often than not always in power. Hardly a good sign of a healthy democracy when there's so little choice available to voters.
Free of election-related corruption as in, the not-really-a-functioning-democracy kind of corruption. There is nowhere in the world where politics itself is free of corruption.
Japanese election results overwhelmingly reflect who actually got the most votes; I have never even heard that point contested.
And little choice? Two-party system? I wonder: have you ever actually seen a Japanese election?
There are so many candidates and parties now that it takes an hour just to google them all. Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the Japanese Communist Party, New Komeito, the Social Democratic Party, Nippon Isshin, the New Rennaissance Party, then we have the Green Wind Party and the Smile Party... and I am definitely missing a whole bunch more -- all of whom have actively serving winners in local government positions and the Japanese Diet.
And in most recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, where I live, the guy who won wasn't even in any of those parties, but AFAICT made his own party with only himself in it...
I almost choked on that one. Yeah, a democracy when there's a change of prime minister every single year or less, can surely be defined as "high functioning". It's as functional as the 4th Republic was in France.
> But they haven't committed any military aggression toward any country in more than 65 years.
They have unconditionally supported the US war operations in many theaters around the world, though. they have not taken directly taken part in conflict but support the US in their wars. That's just because their constitution prevents them to, not that they don't want it...