Abstract
1.Introduction 2.Approaches to legislative studies and the Diet 3.The role of the Liberal Democratic Party as the Opposition 4.The Unchanging functions of the Diet in the changing of political power 5.Conclusion This paper focuses mainly on the functions of the Diet in the change of government. The diet was considered to be 'a rubber stamp', particularly while the predominant party system was retained. That is because the opposition parties didn't play a positive part in the transforming of their intentions into policies and laws. They devoted their energies to only controlling 'disposable' time, and this made the deliberations insignificant. It was often pointed out that the strategy they depended upon arose from their own problems such as the less ability to make policies, the fractionalization and their seats. On the other hand, the Liberal Democratic Party in power criticized their way to waste time for deliberating and advocated the reinstatement of the Diet. The LDP, which went out of power in 1993, however, followed the traditional strategy as the Opposition with all its ability and the ideal. In other words, the functions of the Diet was not changed in the changeing of political power. The factors which made the deliberations in the Diet so negative were not only the problems of the opposition parties. It is necessary to reform the legislative system as a whole as well as parties including the Opposition with a view to activating the Diet.
