Jacob Packard2025-10-202025-10-202025https://hdl.handle.net/10323/18849Japan is often referred to as a “model democracy” within the Asian continent. This thinking reduces Japanese politics to an overly simple level, and has the unfortunate consequence of inadvertently discouraging full-bodied critiques of Japanese democracy. Through a qualitative analysis of three separate case studies focusing on Japanese economy, culture and criminal justice, it is shown that Japanese politics becomes less pressured by that of the so-called “one-and-a-half” party system that political scientists have suggested in recent years and more by the fact that the electorate within Japan struggle to challenge what is perceived as the “status quo”. A thorough analysis of this status quo is conducted, and suggestions for both Japanese policy advocates and international organizations are presented.en-USCC0 1.0 Universalhttp://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/Japanstatus quointernational institutionscustomary international lawThesis