scholarly journals Japan Under the DPJ: The Paradox of Political Change Without Policy Change

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip Y. Lipscy ◽  
Ethan Scheiner
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Policy Coherence ◽  
Rural Regions ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Liberal Democratic

In 2009, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) brought an end to the long reign of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). However, despite high expectations, this politically transformative event has not unleashed significant policy change in Japan. We highlight five electoral factors that have acted as important constraints on policy change under DPJ rule. First, majoritarian electoral rules have led to a convergence in the policy positions of the two major political parties. Second, as the parties' policy positions have become more similar, voters have increasingly cast ballots based on “valence” (i.e., nonpolicy) evaluations. Third, large national vote swings have limited the tenure of young, inexperienced candidates who might otherwise serve as the instigators of reform. Fourth, Japan's electoral rules permit inconsistency across policy positions within parties and discourage greater policy coherence. Fifth, the continuing influence of rural regions has limited the scope of policy reform under the DPJ.

The Electoral System and Japan's Partial Transformation: Party System Consolidation Without Policy Realignment

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan Scheiner
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Partial Transformation ◽  
Policy Options ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Liberal Democratic

Japan's electoral system, which emphasizes first-past-the-post, single-member district rules, has led the country's party system to become consolidated around the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). At the same time, Japan's electoral rules also made it likely that the two parties would not differ markedly in their policy positions, as well as hinder the emergence of new partisan alignments that could offer more clearly distinct policy options. Put differently, Japan's electoral rules have encouraged the development of what is essentially a two-party system, but one in which party alternation in power need not produce sharp policy change.

Japan's Postal Privatization Battle: The Continuing Reverberations for the Liberal Democratic Party of Rebels-Assassins Conflicts

Asian Survey ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 603-625
Author(s):  
Matthew Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Campaign Finance ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
General Election ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Lower House ◽  
House Election

Abstract This article argues that the use of campaign finance regulations and electoral rules by political parties significantly shaped the results of the 2005 general election and the battle over postal privatization in Japan. How the Liberal Democratic Party responds to the reverberations of the conflict between the so-called ““rebels”” and ““assassins”” is likely to affect its electoral fortunes in the next lower house election.

scholarly journals Electoral incentives, policy compromise, and coalition durability: Japan's LDP–Komeito Government in a mixed electoral system

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam P. Liff ◽  
Ko Maeda
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Japanese Politics ◽  
Electoral Incentives ◽  
Coalition Politics ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Mixed Electoral System

AbstractPolitical parties’ behavior in coalition formation is commonly explained by their policy-, vote-, and office-seeking incentives. From these perspectives, the 20-year partnership of Japan's ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its pacifistic Komeito junior coalition partner is an anomalous case. The longevity, closeness, and nature of their unlikely partnership challenges core assumptions in existing theories of coalition politics. LDP–Komeito cooperation has sustained for two decades despite vastly different support bases and ideological differences on fundamental policy issues. LDP leaders also show no signs of abandoning the much smaller Komeito despite enjoying a single-party majority. We argue that the remarkable durability of this puzzling partnership results primarily from the two parties’ electoral incentives and what has effectively become codependence under Japan's mixed electoral system. Our analysis also demonstrates that being in a coalition can induce significant policy compromises, even from a much larger senior partner. Beyond theoretical implications, these phenomena yield important real-world consequences for Japanese politics: especially, a far less dominant LDP than the party's Diet seat total suggests, and Komeito's remarkable ability to punch significantly above its weight and constrain its far larger senior partner, even on the latter's major national security policy priorities.

Electoral Reform and the Costs of Personal Support in Japan

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew M. Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Campaign Finance ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Personal Support ◽  
The Core ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Support Organizations ◽  
Rule Change

How does the choice of electoral rules affect politicians' incentives to campaign on the basis of personalized support? This article examines to what extent the adoption of new electoral and campaign finance rules affects the incentive of politicians in Japan's Liberal Democratic Party to rely on personal support organizations calledkoenkai.The core of the analysis utilizes newly collected campaign finance data. The empirical analyses confirm a considerable weakening in the number of koenkai across systems as well as a decreased need for politicians to spend money in the proportional representation tier. These results highlight the importance of previous organizational legacies as well as the efforts of political actors to mitigate the effects of rule change on their election and reelection prospects.

scholarly journals Finansowanie działań politycznych w Japonii – zarys regulacji i praktyki ustrojowej

2013 ◽  
pp. 161-178
Author(s):  
Jan Misiuna
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Political Finance ◽  
Election System ◽  
Dysfunctional Relationships

This paper deals with the reality of political finance in Japan. In the text I describe how the election system influenced the process of creation of party system, especially segmentation of the Liberal-Democratic Party into factions. Consequences of this system include expensive election campaigns which in turn lead to close relationships between political parties and individual politicians and large, particularly corporate, donors. In effect the costs of election campaigns continue to increase and political parties, perpetually in need of money, constantly search for new donors. In this context it is not surprising that in Japan corruption is important problem. What is also important, however, is the fact that dysfunctional relationships between large, corporate donors and political parties were and are fundamental factors influencing economic policies of successive governments.

Coalition Governments, Party Switching, and the Rise and Decline of Parties: Changing Japanese Party Politics since 1993

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUNKO KATO ◽  
YUTO KANNON
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Party Switching ◽  
One Year ◽  
Party Dominance

AbstractSince 1993, coalition governments have replaced the 38-year-long, one-party dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party (the LDP) in Japan. Except for one year, from 1993 to 1994, the LDP has remained a key party in successive governing coalitions, but the dynamics of party competition has been completely transformed since the period of the LDP's dominance. Although the LDP has survived to form a variety of coalitions ranging from a minority to an over-sized majority, since 1998 the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has continued to counter the LDP governments. The transformation of party systems in Japan accompanies the party switching of legislators and the mergers, breakups, extinctions, and formations of parties. In this regard, the Japanese case provides an interesting example to show how parties attempt to change the dynamics of policy competition by switching and reorganizing. Parties also attempt to shift their policy positions to attract public support and to gain a competitive edge in government formation. Using expert survey data about the policy positions of parties, this study explicates the dynamics involved in the reorganization of parties and the formation of governments.

Testing the Causal Mechanisms in Additional Cases

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul D. Kenny
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
System Stability ◽  
Relative Autonomy ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
Liberal Democratic

Case studies of Indonesia and Japan illustrate that party-system stability in patronage democracies is deeply affected by the relative autonomy of political brokers. Over the course of a decade, a series of decentralizing reforms in Indonesia weakened patronage-based parties hold on power, with the 2014 election ultimately being a contest between two rival populists: Joko Widodo and Subianto Prabowo. Although Japan was a patronage democracy throughout the twentieth century, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) remained robust to outsider appeals even in the context of economic and corruption crises. However, reforms in the 1990s weakened the hold of central factional leaders over individual members of the LDP and their patronage machines. This was instrumental to populist Junichiro Koizumi’s winning of the presidency of the LDP and ultimately the prime ministership of Japan. This chapter also reexamines canonical cases of populism in Latin America.

Japan's Post-Fukushima Energy Politics

2015 ◽  
Vol 07 (02) ◽  
pp. 109-116
Author(s):  
Tai Wei LIM
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Nuclear Reactor ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Nuclear Reactors ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Energy Politics ◽  
Gubernatorial Election

A 2011 earthquake damaged the Fukushima nuclear reactor and provided a galvanising point for anti-nuclear resistance groups in Japan. Their public cause slowly faded from the political arena after the Democratic Party of Japan fell out of power and anti-nuclear politicians lost the 2014 Tokyo gubernatorial election. The current Liberal Democratic Party Prime Minister Abe holds a pro-nuclear position and urges the reactivation of Japan's nuclear reactors after all safeguards have been satisfied.

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