| Research Abstract |
I intended to address a comprehensive scheme to enable us to have a better grasp of the interest group formation as well as transformation in several developed countries. Also, I was hoping to contribute partly to the long-standing debate of political regime theory by incorporating the statistical evidence.
I have been collecting the statistics about the number of associations and associations' employees in the Great Britain, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia which are added to the already obtained data of Japan, Korea, and the United States. Furthermore, in order to complete quantitative data about the non-government organization as well as the non-profit sector in all countries mentioned above, I made contact with foreign joint researchers to exchange necessary information. I also went abroad to find such data myself. As I was steadily finishing the data base of the interest groups, I engaged in the comparative and historical analysis between Japan and Korea, APEC countries, Japan an
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d the United States.
I found the following characteristics about the Japanese interest group (for details, see my papers in references) :
1. Japan experienced the upsurge of the interest group formation for 4 times in the past. 2. Compared with other developed countries, it's ranked in the upper middle in terms of development. 3. It is partial to business and industry related groups. 4. There is a difficulty to estimate the current situation of civil groups. It makes their underdevelopment quite plausible. 5. Int'l NGOs in Japan are inactive compared to European organizations. However, there is the increasing number of Japanese participants to such int'l organizations.
I Have dedicated to what may well take the lead in this area of political science. Also it is to introduce a novel, but feasible perspective toward political regime theory. Especially, it would explain the politically uncertain times since the mid 1990s. It suggests that the possible direction Japan would strategically choose to deal with foreign affairs in the future. Moreover, in view of the int'l political relations at various levels, what kind of role that newly emerging Asian countries such as Korea would play in the future will be an indispensable aspect in this study. Less
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