The Era of Coalition Government in Japan: The Institutional Logic of Surplus Majorities and Strange Bedfellows

Electoral System ◽

Coalition Government ◽

Institutional Logic ◽

Japanese Politics ◽

Electoral Coalitions ◽

Liberal Democratic ◽

Lower House

For nearly four decades after its establishment in 1955, Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party formed every government alone. Since mid-1993, however, coalition government has been the norm in Japanese politics. Interestingly, every coalition since 1999 has included a party with a lower house majority by itself. Nonetheless, these majority parties have taken on coalition partners. This chapter shows that the logic of “oversized” coalition government in Japan is driven in part by parliamentary bicameralism, and partly by the mixed-member electoral system, which incentivizes the formation of long-lived pre-electoral coalitions.

Ending the LDP Hegemony: Party Cooperation in Japan. By Ray Christensen. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000. 228p. $52.00 cloth, $27.95 paper.

American Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s0003055401552016 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 95 (1) ◽

pp. 231-232

Author(s):

Kenji Hayao

Keyword(s):

Democratic Party ◽

Party System ◽

Party Politics ◽

Socialist Party ◽

Coalition Government ◽

Japanese Politics ◽

Liberal Democratic ◽

2000 Election

The Japanese party system has been in flux in recent years. In 1993, two groups defected from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and joined with the opposition to form a broadly based coalition government. A year later, the LDP regained power by creating a coalition government with its ideological opponent, the Japan Socialist Party (JSP). Both events shocked virtually everyone at the time. The LDP had been in power for so long-almost 40 years-that it seemed almost inconceivable that it could lose power. For just as long, the JSP had been the main opposition. By the 2000 election, a dozen parties had come and gone, the JSP's strength dropped to a very small fraction of what it was a decade earlier, and the LDP had to turn to various coalition partners to maintain its control of government. All this is quite puzzling to even close watchers of Japanese politics, because party politics, especially the role of opposition parties, has been a relatively understudied area. For those who want to make sense of how these events came to pass, Ray Christensen's Ending the LDP Hegemony will be very helpful.

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

10.1017/s1468109918000415 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 53-73 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Adam P. Liff ◽

Ko Maeda

Keyword(s):

Political Parties ◽

Security Policy ◽

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.

Japan in 2008: A Prelude to Change??

Asian Survey ◽

10.1525/as.2009.49.1.107 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 49 (1) ◽

pp. 107-119 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

David Arase

Keyword(s):

Foreign Policy ◽

Democratic Party ◽

Liberal Democratic ◽

Lower House ◽

Current Term ◽

House Election

Events in 2008 suggest that the Koizumi era is over and the Liberal Democratic Party will lose the lower house election that must be called before its current term expires in September 2009. The Democratic Party of Japan became the favorite to win the election and laid out the new domestic and foreign policy directions in which it will take Japan.

The Liberal Democratic Party: Its adaptability and predominance in Japanese politics for 60 years

Asian Journal of Comparative Politics ◽

10.1177/2057891118783270 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 8-22

Author(s):

Michio Umeda

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Presidential Election ◽

Democratic Party ◽

Japanese Society ◽

Electoral Reform ◽

Party Organization ◽

Allocation System ◽

Japanese Politics ◽

Liberal Democratic

This article discusses the origin and continuity of the predominance of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japanese politics since the party’s formation in 1955. The LDP experienced two crises in its history, the first owing to the transformation of Japanese society by rapid economic development during the 1960–1970s, and the second due to the electoral reform in 1994 and the challenge from the Democratic Party of Japan thereafter. I argue that the LDP’s continuous success is attributable to its adaptability to new environments: the party overcame the first crisis by shifting the policy focus, reorganizing its support base and the party organization to achieve intraparty consensus. It coped with the second crisis by forming a coalition with the Clean Government Party and reforming the party’s presidential election and the ministerial post-allocation system. The article concludes with a summary and a brief discussion regarding the future of the LDP.

Japanese Politics in Transition: A Theoretical Review

Government and Opposition ◽

10.1111/j.1477-7053.1993.tb01380.x ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 28 (4) ◽

pp. 443-455 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Takashi Inoguchi

Keyword(s):

Democratic Party ◽

Large Scale ◽

Type System ◽

Electoral System ◽

Vice President ◽

Liberal Democratic ◽

Income Tax Law ◽

Anglo American ◽

Party Dominance

THE END OF ONE-PARTY DOMINANCE BY THE LIBERAL Democratic Party of Japan came as abruptly as the fall of the Berlin wall four years before. It started with the debate on electoral system change, ostensibly as an attempt to curb corruption. The LDP has been plagued by a series of large-scale corruption scandals since the Recruit scandal of 1989. The latest concerned former vice-president Shin Kanemaru's alleged violation of the political money regulation law and the income tax law in 1992–93. The Prime Minister, Kiichi Miyazawa, accepting a fair degree of compromise with opposition parties, wanted to pass a bill to change the current electoral system. The LDP initially wanted to change from the system of choosing a few persons in each district by one vote to the Anglo-American type system of selecting one person in each district by one vote. The opposition wanted to change to the continental European system of proportional representation. A compromise was made by the LDP's proposal to combine the latter two systems. Then two dissenting groups emerged suddenly in the LDP. One took the exit option by forming new political parties. The other took the voice option by backing away from the Miyazawa compromise plan. Miyazawa was humiliated by his failure to have the bill enacted and a motion of no confidence was passed. He then called for a general election, which took place on 18 July 1993. The outcome did not give a majority to the LDP and subsequently a non-LDP coalition was formed to produce a non-LDP government for the first time since the foundation of the LDP in 1955

Evaluating Political Reform in Japan: A Midterm Report

10.1017/s1468109902002050 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 243-263 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Steven R. Reed

Keyword(s):

Democratic Party ◽

Party System ◽

Political Reform ◽

Coalition Government ◽

Preliminary Evaluation ◽

Liberal Democratic ◽

The Government ◽

The Cost ◽

First Time

In the 1993 general election the Liberal Democratic Party lost power for the first time since it was founded in 1955. The coalition government that followed enacted the most far-reaching political reforms Japan has experienced since the American Occupation. The country has now experienced two elections since these reforms so we can begin to analyze trends and dynamics. It is now possible to make a preliminary evaluation of the effects of these reforms. I evaluate the reforms under three headings: (1) reducing the cost of elections and levels of corruption; (2) replacing candidate-centered with party-centered campaigns; and (3) moving toward a two-party system which would produce alternation in power between the parties of the government and the parties of the opposition. In conclude that, with some notable exceptions, the reforms are working well, about as well as should have been expected.

Rational Foundations for the Organization of the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan

World Politics ◽

10.2307/2010543 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 44 (3) ◽

pp. 369-397 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Masaru Kohno

Keyword(s):

Democratic Party ◽

Political Process ◽

Institutional Constraints ◽

Japanese History ◽

Japanese Politics ◽

Electoral Incentives ◽

Liberal Democratic ◽

Electoral Laws ◽

Average Size

Over the last two decades there have been numerous changes in the organization of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan. The pattern of factionalization has changed significantly in terms of the number of competing major factions, the average size of their membership, and their internal structure. Moreover, a new set of institutionalized norms, such as the seniority and interfactional balancing principles, has emerged to govern organizational processes within the LDP. The conventional approach in the literature on Japanese politics, which focuses on factors unique or distinctive to Japanese history, culture, and social behavior, cannot adequately explain these recent changes in the LDP. This paper proposes an alternative, rational-choice explanation based on the standard microanalytic assumptions. More specifically, it argues that the pattern of the LDP's factionalization is primarily determined by the electoral incentives of two sets of rational actors, LDP politicians and LDP supporters, operating under institutional constraints, such as electoral laws and political funding regulations. It also argues that the organizational norms originate in the promotion incentives of the LDP politicians whose strategies are influenced by the uncertainty in the dynamics of the interfactional political process.

Gender and Voting Preferences in Japanese Lower House Elections

10.1017/s1468109903001038 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 1-39

Author(s):

GILL STEEL

Keyword(s):

Gender Gap ◽

House Of Representatives ◽

Democratic Party ◽

Liberal Democratic ◽

Lower House ◽

Standards Of Living ◽

Voter Choice ◽

Gender Based ◽

Using Data

This paper analyzes voter choice in selected House of Representatives elections during the past 30 years. I estimate multinomial probit models using data from the Akarui Senkyo Suishin Kyokai (Society for the Promotion of Clean Elections) surveys and use qualitative data gathered in focus groups. I argue that no gender gap exists in the votes garnered by the main parties because, first, influential people are not simply able to ‘deliver’ votes from their networks — most accounts of voter choice fail to discuss gender, an oversight considering that most networks are gender-based — and, second, ‘women's issues’ have no special relevance to women in their vote choice. Instead, women and men vote for the Liberal Democratic Party because they associate the Party with stability and increased standards of living, including substantial social provisions.

Japanese Party Politics at a Crossroads?

The Journal of Asian Studies ◽

10.1017/s002191181500008x ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 74 (2) ◽

pp. 443-447

Author(s):

Benjamin Nyblade

Keyword(s):

House Of Representatives ◽

Democratic Party ◽

Party Politics ◽

First Century ◽

Japanese Politics ◽

Liberal Democratic ◽

Members Of Parliament ◽

Electoral Defeat ◽

Electoral Reforms

In 2009, the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan, which had successfully formed governments either alone or as the largest partner in a coalition government for all but a single year since 1955, suffered a devastating electoral defeat when the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won nearly two-thirds of the seats available in the House of Representatives. The landslide DPJ victory was seen by many commentators and academics as the culmination of a decade-long trend toward two-party politics, driven in large part by party and voter adaptation to the electoral reforms of the 1990s, which introduced single-member districts as the means for electing a majority of members of parliament. The three books reviewed in this essay were written primarily in the two years following the 2009 DPJ victory, and each attempts, in quite distinct ways, to update our accounts of electoral and party politics and policymaking in Japan to account for the changes in Japanese politics in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

The Legislative Record: The Japan National Diet in 2004

10.1017/s1468109904001550 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 327-330

Author(s):

JUNKO HIROSE

Keyword(s):

Democratic Party ◽

Party System ◽

Conservative Party ◽

General Election ◽

Major Party ◽

Japanese Politics ◽

Liberal Democratic ◽

House Election

The general election in November 2003 and the Upper House election in July 2004 indicate that the Japanese politics is going from a one party dominant toward a two major party system. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) narrowly keeps a majority in both Houses by merging the New Conservative Party and by forming a coalition with New Komeito.