Abstract
This paper aims to examine the 915 Diet members' bills submitted to the Diet from the 80th to the 129th Diet Session (1976-1994). The agenda-setting functions by Diet members are analyzed from five aspects: 1) sponsored party, 2) some types of policy, 3) process of deliberation, 4) party votes, and 5) influence on the government legislation, respectively. Traditionally our constitutional scholars have considered that the functions of the member bills have been playing a limited role to supplement the government. This time, not taking the traditional approach, I use a new approach based upon interactions among interest groups, the political parties, and the government to analyze them.
First, the member bills reflect the pluralistic policy interests of public opinion and interest groups. Especially, the bills through the opposition parties lay emphasis on the protective regulatory policy and the redistributive policy, while the LDP (the liberal Democratic party) has priorities over the distributive policy and the competitive regulatory policy. Secondly, the bills from the oppositiom parties have the agendasetting function by stimulating and altering governmental legislation related to the labor policy, environmental protection, social welfare, guarantee of human rights, etc. The trend is more evident with oppositions parties' participation in the ruling coalition. This leads us to conclude that the member bills have the functions to create the rights of minorities and the weak persons, which have a substantial influence on the public policy making process.
