To Peter Cave:

I agree with your assessment. The DPJ has changed the LDP's "bottom up," decentralized policymaking process (more centralized under Koizumi though) to "Ministerial government" where cabinet ministers are the key policymakers rather than the party or the bureaucracy, but they have yet to figure out how to get the "Cabinet government" of a more unified and coordinate cabinet-run Westminster system.

Best regards,
Ellis
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Ellis S. Krauss, Professor,