Description: "In a cogently written book well grounded in social science theory, Frank Schwartz takes shingikai, the ubiquitous consultative councils attached to Japan's ministries, and puts them at the center of a fascinating study of interest-group politics. Do these councils merely rubber-stamp what bureaucrats want as critics often charge, or do they reflect genuine and growing pluralism? In three disparate, highly readable, and well researched case studies - involving policy struggles over creating a Japanese futures market; shortening the work week; and cutting the rice price - Schwartz shows neopluralism, Japanese-style, at work, and reveals what interest groups lose and gain from it. This is a first-rate book. Indeed, it's absolutely the best book published to date on interest-group politics in contemporary Japan in comparative perspective." Susan J. Pharr, Harvard University

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