Democratic and Representative System
Results of comparison among Japan, the US, the UK,
Germany, and France in terms of the regular numbers of the parliament and a salary and costs for each member of each house are as follows:
JAPAN USA UK Germany France
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Lower House Seats 480 435 650 620 577
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Upper House Seats 242 100 826 69 348
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Population 170,000 570,000 40,000 110,000 60,000
per Member
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Annual Salary $211,000 $136,000 $80,000 (L) $95,000 (L) $88,000
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Budget per Member
Lower House $582,000 max $1.5 M $264,000 $341,000 $280,000
Upper House $592,000 max $3.9 M * $6,000 $260,000
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So, in France every 40,000 citizens can elect their representative in the national assembly. But in the US 570,000 citizens can only send one representative of them to Congress.
Members of the British Lower House receive the lowest consideration for their service to the nation. Each of American congressman receives very high salary and expenses.
But Japanese National Diet members get the highest salary, though US congressmen enjoy the largest total expenses.
From the beginning how society and communities were established in each country was so different.
For the US and Americans, society is what should be built newly or incessantly by incumbent citizens, and communities should be based on individuals. Therefore pressure on each member of Congress is heavy.
For Europeans, society is what should be always monitored, maintained, and adjusted, and communities should be formed against other classes or outsiders. Therefore pressure on each member of the parliament is of various types.
But Japanese were born in a complete society, and communities are what has been already fixed or cannot be changed. Therefore pressure on each member of the National Diet is neither heavy nor complicated.
One interest thing about Japan is that when the last samurai regime decided to put an end to the 250-year-long policy of closing the country, they sent an envoy to the US in 1860. But elite samurais could not well understand the American democracy. They visited Congress in Washington DC but samurais could not understand why Americans were discussing matters in an assembly to decide any policy. Such practices of democracy were beyond their imagination.
Japan was then governed by elite samurais from the leading Tokugawa clan and other samurai clans or feudal lords. The samurai class possessed all the cultural products and skills, though farmers and townsmen could were allowed to develop culture so long as they did not become enemies of samurais. So, the most learnt men in Japan in the samurai era could be found among samurais or noblemen in Kyoto. Accordingly, whatever elite samurai decided and formulated was thought to be better than any ideas and plans farmers and townsmen came to think about. So, no national assembly was needed; no elections were needed; and no democracy was needed in the era of rule by the sword.
So, even today there is a kind of a presumption in Japan that whoever is elected as a parliament member he or she must have some merit in terms of their ability. A national Diet member must be wiser than most of voters, they think.
However, in Europe and the US, politics is not a matter of the God. Human beings cannot play the part for the God. Nothing is mysterious in any parliament member. He or she is just one of citizens but each with a louder voice, an outstanding outlook, and a smart mind. It is business for profane persons. They know they cannot find a genius or a saint among their representatives in the parliament. The only exception might be the case of Hitler.
But in Japan National Diet members are those who are closer to the Emperor than any other Japanese citizens. No ordinary persons are usually invited to a banquet or a ceremony in the Imperial Palace, but Japanese parliament members have many occasions to visit the Imperial Palace and face the Emperor and the Empress or other imperial family members. The prime minister of Japan occasionally visits the Imperial Palace to explain his policies to the Emperor. (When PM of Japan travels abroad and comes back to Japan, he always visits the Palace to write down a simple memo of his return to the Emperor.) So, in this context, the Prime Minister of Japan is someone that is the closest to the Emperor in the nation.
The king or queen of England is also the head of religion in England. But he or she is a mere human being. Everybody calls him or her Henry, Elizabeth, etc. But the Japanese emperor cannot be merely one of human beings in Japan. He must be more spiritual than other Japanese. In shinto theory, ancestors of the Emperor include gods. Though no Japanese think that DNAs of the emperor include something special, they want the emperor to be spiritually different from others. The emperor as the highest priest of shintoism must be pure and clean as much as possible when he performs his religious duty before spirits and gods, including ancestors of the imperial family.
So no matter who are elected as representatives of Japanese, beside them there is one permanent representative, the emperor, in Japan. And the emperor should not be an ordinary man.
This characteristic of the Japanese national and political system was once abused by generals of the Imperial Army and Navy. They started the war against China and then the war against the US between 1937 and 1945 in the name of the emperor.
However, after WWII, Japan has vastly adopted the American democracy, while specifying the Emperor as the symbol of unity of the Japanese people but not the ruler in the Constitution. Mass opinions have come to be respected than opinions of the political elites. So, Japan can be now regraded as having a democratic representative system almost with the same functions as those in Europe and the US.
That is also why China cannot represent Asian peoples.
Emperor of Japan
Empress of Japan
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Mar 10:11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.
Mar 10:12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.