A Three-layered model of politicization

The result is summarized in Table 3–1 comparing four countries and appearing later in the book, but let us first focus on Japan and examine Figures 3–2 and 3–3. Figure 3–2 compares the results of the questions discussed above in two areas in Japan, the Tokyo metropolitan area and Ibaraki prefecture, and summarizes the differences and the similarities between the two areas. In Figure 3–3, we show each organization category, extracting categories that are above the national average and adding the characteristics of each category. The numbers shown are absolute ratios, showing the ratios to the total number of valid samples, rather than the ratios of organizations that responded to the questionnaire. In other words, we are looking at the ratios of the statistics including

“missing” responses. We present the data in this way to avoid overestimating the frequency of answers to questions with low response rates. In the pages that follow, we will make inferences regarding the level of politicization of Japanese civil society organizations based on these ratios. However, we do not take the relationship among the questions into consideration. In a similar way, when we refer to “50 percent of the organizations,” this may vary according to the number of cases.

Although we will discuss the cross-national comparisons in more detail later, we first want to pay attention to the following points that are more or less common among Korea, the United States, and Germany. Civil society organizations in each country show nearly the same percentage of interest or participation in three different stages: (1) policy interest, (2) lobbying, and (3) political activities. First, nearly 100 percent of the organizations in each country show interest in policy. (In the United States, the figure was 80 percent because the question asks how frequently the organization lobbies for a

particular policy.) Second, about 40 to 70 percent of the organizations undertake lobbying activities. Third, about 10 percent of the organizations participate in election campaigns.

Let us look at these results in more detail. In reference to policy interests, nearly 100 percent of the organizations responded that they are interested in at least one of 22 select policy areas including finance, international exchange (including cooperation and assistance), academic affairs, and sports. Organizations that we examined were selected at random from a phone directory, and they are by no means well known. It seems natural that all of these organizations, no matter how small or big, have an interest in public policy.

In fact, this is a quite important finding. It is certainly natural to think that the leader of an organization would show interest in at least one of a select list of policy issue areas. In support of this common-sense approach, our findings suggest that the fact that groups are organized to become active groups (katsudotai) signifies that they are organizations that have policy interests.

In other words, as group theory suggests, when organizations are organized into groups, the theoretical assumption or implication is that those groups are interested in policies or politics. This is supported by the early 20th century intuition of A.E. Bentley wherein he argues that interest leads to organization, and that organization leads to activities (Bentley, 1908, 1967; Uebayashi and Kita, [trans.], 1994: 266). As long as groups are organized, there exists a policy interest, regardless of the type of organization. Dahl (1991:1) further argues this by stating, “We cannot escape from politics.” Thus, every group must have interest in public policy.3

Second,4we found that only half of the groups actively lobby in more than one issue area. The responses to Q21 in the Japanese survey are particularly striking and are summarized in the lower middle of Figure 3–2. If respondents indicated that they engage in at least one of the eight activities listed, their action is counted. Such activities include contacting the ruling party, providing information to the mass media, and forming alliances with other groups. We found that 43 percent of the organizations surveyed in

3 As mentioned, the return rate in each country is not so high. Kyonggi-do in South Korea was a little over 10 percent and Ibaraki, Japan, 50 percent.

4 Q21 includes 14 questions, but we selected 7 representative lobbying methods.

Figure 3-2 Interest Group Formation of Civil Society Structures (Politicization) 蠢 Outline of Tokyo/Ibaraki Data

Figure 3-3 Interest Group Formation of Civil Society Structures (Politicization) 蠡Organizational Features by Type (Tokyo) (%)

Tokyo checked at least one of those eight activities. With regard to other sets of questions in the survey, 30 to 60 percent of the groups answered positively to at least one of the activities included in the questions. Moreover, 40 to 60 percent of groups either participated in or indicated a position concerning at least one of twelve major policy events in the 1980s and 1990s.5 In other words, about half of the civil society organizations surveyed are actively involved in policy processes as an interest group or a pressure group (see Chapter 8 for further details).

Third, we found that 10 to 20 percent of the groups demonstrate active support with a clear political party preference on issues related to election campaigns, party contact, policy proposals, budget activities, and participation in deliberative bodies (shingikai). In both Japan and Korea, 10 to 20 percent of the groups surveyed believe that they are quite influential with regard to policy enforcement and policy revision. However, we have not examined the correlation between this perceived influence and the level of participation in political campaigns. For our purposes, we simply want to state that 10 to 20 percent of the groups are in fact engaged in political activities.