Party Politics in Japan

Political Chaos and Stalemate in the 21st Century

Ronald J. Hrebenar,Akira Nakamura

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317745969
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Categoría: Politica

The Japanese political system is a parliamentary democracy and was the first western style government in Asia when the parliamentary system was adopted in the 1880s. It has a multiparty system, free elections, and a parliament that functions much the same way that any other democratic parliament functions, however for much of its existence the Japanese party system has been dominated by one party. This fact is crucial to understanding contemporary politics in Japan, especially since the long term ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, is once again back in power.

This book presents an up-to-date analysis of the political parties that make up the Japanese party system and their impact on Japanese politics and government. Given that the executive branch is selected as a result of the pattern of party numbers in the parliament, to understand Japanese politics and policy, one must first know the nature of the ruling and opposition parties and their leaders. Indeed, in the past decade the quality of Japan's government has been closely associated with the strengths and weaknesses of Japan's prime ministers and the dominant party in the system. This book focuses on a central question: why Japanese politics and government has been so dysfunctional in the past two decades? With this question in mind, the chapters provide key background information on Japanese politics and political parties; discuss each of the major political parties that have governed Japan since 1955; and finally, examine the December 2012 House of Representatives elections that returned the LDP to power, and the differences between the First (1955-1993) and the Second Post War Party Systems (1993- ).

Party Politics in Japan provides a comprehensive analysis of the past sixty years of Japanese party politics. As such, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese politics and Asian politics, as well as to those interested in political parties and political systems more broadly.

1 Japan’s changing party system

Ronald J. Hrebenar and Mayumi Itoh

The Japanese political system is a parliamentary democracy. Japan was the first Western style government in Asia. Its Japanese style parliamentary system was adopted in the 1880s using the model of Bismark’s Prussia. It has a multiparty system, free elections and a parliament that functions much the same way that any other democratic parliament functions (Stockwin 2008). But in a crucial respect, the Japanese party system has been relatively unusual among the world’s true democracies. For much of its existence, it was a one party dominant system operating within a free and open electoral system. Among real, free democracies, Japan shared its one party dominant designation with Italy (Christian Democrats from 1946 to 1994) and Sweden (Socialists from 1920 to 2003). The fact that each of these democracies had a governing political party for much of its post-1945 era and each has also in recent decades entered into a more competitive party system is important for understanding the contemporary politics for each nation and, we would argue, especially for Japan since its long term ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, is once again back in power.

We focus this book on Japan’s politics on its party system because in a parliamentary system, the executive branch (prime minister and cabinet) is selected as a result of the pattern of party numbers in the parliament. Thus, to understand Japanese politics and policy, one must know the nature of the ruling and opposition parties and their leaders. To be even more specific, the quality of Japan’s government in the past decade has been closely associated with the strengths and weaknesses of Japan’s prime ministers and the dominant party in the system.

In this opening chapter, we want to introduce the basics of the election system and discuss several of the more important characteristics of Japanese political parties, specifically, the domination of the Liberal Democratic Party since 1955, the relationship between the parties and the Japanese voters, the party structures and the role of money in Japanese elections.

Characteristics of the Japanese party system

Japan’s party system operates in a mixed electoral system that combines single seat plurality districts with proportional representation. The current ruling party (since December, 2012) is the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The major opposition party is the Democratic Party (DPJ). These two parties formed national level governments during almost all of the previous two decades. The LDP currently governs with its junior coalition partner, the Buddhist Clean Government Party, the New Komeito (CGP). Additionally, there are a number of much smaller parties such as the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) that consistently win some seats in the parliament largely thanks to the nature of the proportional representation system. In the 2012 HR elections, a number of new parties emerged and one, Ishin no kai or Restoration Party, won a significant number of seats (54), but since new parties come and go within just a couple of years, it remains to be seen if it, or any of the other new parties, can survive to become a regular party of the party system.

While Japan had had a modern form of government since the late 1880s, the national government in its current parliamentary form dates only from 1948 with the adoption of the new post-World War II constitution. While on occasion we will refer to events or political actors from the earlier eras of Japanese politics and history, the central focus of this book is on Japanese party politics in the twenty-first century. After we discuss several of the key party characteristics we will then move to explain the details of the electoral rules and the nature of Japanese political finance as they play very important roles in constraining the party system. Then we will discuss the three major parties (DPJ, LDP and CGP) with special attention to the current roles they play. Finally, we will examine the current party system and party governments in the context of the changes that have occurred in the past two decades, examine the outcomes of the 2012 House elections and suggest where Japanese politics may be going in the foreseeable future.

We will begin our exploration of Japanese political parties with the most significant characteristic of postwar Japanese politics—the domination of national level politics by the Liberal Democratic Party.

The legacy of Japan’s one party dominant politics

Japan’s dominant political party from 1955 to 2014 has been the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). This is the longest time a political party has been able to dominate a democracy in modern world political history. The LDP began to lose control of Japan’s national government in 1993 when one of its major factions split away and the LDP was replaced by a collection of opposition parties for less than a year before regaining power for the next 16 years. It never suffered an election defeat that cost it the control of the government until the August 2009 House of Representatives (HR) elections, when the Democratic Party (DPJ) defeated the LDP and took control of the national government (Taniguchi et al. 2009).

The August 2009 HR elections are enormously significant because they stand as a watershed event in post-World War II Japanese history—the first time a HR election outcome changed a government. Political scientists had been waiting for such a change of government in Japan for 60 years. Some wondered if that event would ever happen. It seemed that no matter how corrupt and inept the LDP politicians were, the opposition parties appeared to be even less competent. Finally, however, in 2009 the voters decided to give an opposition party, the DPJ, a chance to run Japan and even gave it a large majority in the HR to go with its already existing “working coalition” in the upper house, the House of Councillors (HC) (Sasaki 2008). Japan, at last, had the “alteration in power” that is common in other democracies.

So, the Japanese party system is without a doubt changing, and the question that will be addressed in this book is “Changing to what?” Is it changing simply from an LDP dominant system to one in which the DPJ is the new king of politics? Or will there now be a period of alternation in power between the DPJ and the LDP? Or did the LDP regain its dominance after the voters found the DPJ wanting? Or is Japan about to enter into a long period of multiparty, coalition governments with various parties shifting alliances back and forth to form one weak government after another? These are the questions that currently bedevil Japanese politics.

Japanese party politics in the twenty-first century

The first decade of the twenty-first century began in Japan much as almost all of the previous half century had been—with the LDP as the ruling party. Yes, the LDP was in a coalition with the New Komeito, the Buddhist party of the Soka Gakkai, a lay branch of the Nichirin sect of Buddhism, but everyone understood that the LDP was running Japan as it had since 1955.

A great nation needs stable political leadership to effectively deal with the economic and political challenges that seem to come nearly every day. Japan has not had stability and continuity in its top political leadership for a long time. Japan had nine prime ministers between 2000 and 2012, with the first five coming from the LDP and the next three from the DPJ and then another from the LDP (see Table 1.1). Koizumi Junichiro held the post from 2001 to 2006 and some consider him to be the only successful prime minister in the decade. He was preceded by a series of weak LDP prime ministers and then, after he resigned in 2006, there were three more LDP prime ministers, all from elite Japanese political families, each of whom lasted about a year in office. When the DPJ won the August 2009 HR elections, Hatoyama Yukio, a son from an elite Japanese political family, became prime minister, only to be forced from office by weak polls and scandals after ten months in office (Takenaka 2010). His DPJ successor, Kan Naoto, who was not from an elite political family, lost public support within a month of taking the prime minister post and after a year, he turned the leadership of the cabinet over to Noda Yoshihiko. Finally, after the 2012 elections, the LDP leader and former prime minister, Abe Shinzo, returned to power. At the time of this writing (March, 2014) Prime Minister Abe has been in office for almost a year and a half—a long time for a Japanese prime minister.

Table 1.1 Japanese prime ministers since 2000

Prime minister	Years	Party
Mori Yoshiro	2000–2001	LDP
Koizumi Junichiro	2001–2006	LDP
Abe Shinzo	2006–2007	LDP
Fukuda Yasuo	2007–2008	LDP
Aso Taro	2008–2009	LDP
Hatoyama Yukio	2009–2010	DPJ
Kan Naoto	2010–2011	DPJ
Noda Yoshihiko	2011–2012	DPJ
Abe Shinzo	2012–	LDP

Japan has a Westminster form of parliamentary government with a national legislature, the Diet, having two chambers, the House of Representatives (HR) and the House of Councillors (HC). The prime minister and nearly all of his cabinet are selected from members of Diet and they have to have majority support in at least the House of Representatives. For a stable long lasting government, a party needs to control a majority in both houses either by itself or in a coalition with several smaller parties. Unless a prime minister has this political situation, every major piece of legislation and every major policy decision may become a long and bitter political struggle. The House of Representatives and the House of Councillors are co-equal branches of the Diet and the upper house has to agree to almost all bills to enact them in law, except for the budget, international treaties and the selection of the prime minister. Thus, it is essential for the party forming a new cabinet based on the results of the House of Representatives elections to then ensure that they have at least a coalition majority in the House of Councillors in order to try to make good on their campaign promises. The House of Representatives has 480 members with 300 elected in single member districts and 180 elected by proportional representation (PR) party or candidate voting for a maximum of four year terms. The House of Councillors has 242 members elected in single, multi-member and PR districts for six year terms with half selected every three years.

The first and second postwar party systems

This book will contrast the past 60 years of Japanese politics as being viewed as two fairly distinct eras: 1955–1993 and 1993 to the present time, 2014. We refer to these eras as the First Postwar Party System and the Second Postwar Party System. A party system is characterized by a particular set of political parties, electoral voting patterns and governing parties. While, of course, there were political parties in the long pre-World War II era from the 1890s to just after the war, in this book, our focus is on the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. Since the early postwar years (1946–1955) had a very unclear pattern of political parties, we begin our analysis of party politics when the left wing parties and then the right wing parties merged into two parties (the JSP and the LDP) in 1955. In the next section, we will note how Japanese party politics has changed from the First to the Second Party System.

We suggest that there have been two party systems in post-World War II Japanese national politics: the First Postwar Party System of 1955 and the Second Postwar Party System of 1993. This book focuses on the development of the second system. (For coverage of the First Party System, see Baerwald 1986; Curtis 1988, 1999; Kohno 1997; Pemple 1998; Hrebenar 2000; and Inoguchi 2003.) The Second Party System is characterized by a two party competition between its dominant parties, the LDP and the DPJ. There is also, if needed, a potential coalition partner for the LDP, the New Komeito. There is also a collection of small parties—some that have broken off from the LDP in recent years and others forming at the grassroots seeking a presence at the national level. The parties of the Second Party System are listed in Table 1.2.

The pattern of LDP domination was one of the significant characteristics of the First Postwar Party System. On the other hand, the inability of the main opposition party, the JSP, to di...

Índice

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• Preface
• List of abbreviations
• 1 Japan’s changing party system
• 2 The rules of the election game in Japan
• 3 Japanese political finance and its dark side
• 4 The triumph and fall of the Democratic Party of Japan
• 5 The Liberal Democratic Party: the persistent ruling party of Japan
• 6 The New Komei Party: Japan’s Buddhist Party and LDP’s coalition partner
• 7 The fall of the DPJ and return of the LDP to power: the December 2012 House Elections
• 8 The Second Postwar Party System and the future of Japanese politics
• Index