Is Japan a democracy?
Yes, of course, obviously. Voters vote, demonstrators demonstrate, critics criticize. These are the vital signs, and they're positive.
Just look at the government scrambling to blunt the charge of an anonymous blogger venting rage at being unable to get her child into day care. She's a single mother earning a precarious living and she may have to quit her part-time job, a victim of the government's failure to concern itself with the basic needs of its citizens.