The Japanese Officials’ Resignation Phenomenon: Political Accountability Lessons for Indonesia’s Democratic System
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Abstract
Manifestations of political accountability, a pillar of democracy, differ significantly across Asia. This study employs a comparative case study approach to analyze the stark contrast between Japan’s culture of honorable resignation and Indonesia’s sluggish, formal-legal accountability. In Japan, the resignation of public officials functions as a political risk governance mechanism, driven by the cultural norm of jiko sekinin (self-responsibility) and reinforced by potent diagonal accountability from the media. This process rapidly transfers the political cost of failure from the collective to the individual. Conversely, accountability in Indonesia is hampered by systemic challenges, including oligarchy and a weak internalization of ethics, making it dependent on legal sanctions rather than cultural imperatives. The study concludes that the most effective policy learning for Indonesia is not the direct imitation of resignation but the strategic adaptation of the jiko sekinin principle to strengthen the 'sense of ethics' and integrity within its bureaucracy.
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