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.
The Decline and Fall of the LDP in Japan
