Japan's new politics: The case of the NPO Law

The Special Nonprofit Organization Law that Japan passed in 1998 demands attention as a shift in state-civil society relations in a nation long characterized as a strong state. Removing many impediments civil-society organizations faced, the law significantly expands the scope of groups that qualify for legal status and curtails stifling bureaucratic supervision. Changed electoral institutions altered incentives fur politicians and produced this law. It is also part of broader changes-including an increase in Diet members' bills, a move toward a Freedom of Information Act, decentralization, and deregulation-in Japanese society and politics, all striking at centralized bureaucratic power.