The Evolving Power of the Core Executive: A Case Study of Japan’s ICT Regulation after the 1980s

This article addresses the transformation of the state by exploring the case of Japan’s ICT regulation between the 1980s and 2000s prompted by the challenge to the state after the 1980s. It sets out to challenge the dominant pluralist and rational choice literature in Japanese politics that takes an elitist perspective with the concept of the core executive, referring to the body of statist literature, that employes data drawn from the interview of elites. What emerges from this study is a variation on state transformation with a fluid change of power within the core executive in ICT regulation. This can be understood as a dynamic reconstitution process of the Japanese state in response to the challenges both sector-specific and beyond. Mobilised by the change of power, the reconstitution of the Japanese state has transformed the developmentally-oriented characteristic of the Japanese state led by civil servants. Elsewhere, by focusing on the state at a macro level and power relations within the core executive, this article reveals the dominance of the core executive in ICT regulation. It concludes that the Japanese state has retained dominance over society through its reconstitution mobilised by the core executive within which the fluid change of power has occurred between actors in response to its challenges.