This book, a comparative study of legislative systems primarily undertaken by the US Association of Former Members of Congress and the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE), devotes its first six chapters to the Japanese Diet and its latter six to the US Congress.
The initial chapters of the Japan and US sections explain the histories of the bicameral legislatures and the two nation’s constitutional structures. Subsequent chapters cover organizational specifics and power distribution, law-making and political parties, election procedures and elected members’ duties, budgetary and other financial policies, as well as defense, trade, and foreign affairs. An extensive Index duplicates main entries such as the “Budgetary process” and “House of Representatives” for ease of referencing the same topic in either the six Diet-related chapters or those on the Congress. Contains five tables and two figures.