Lib Dems (Japan)

The , frequently abbreviated to LDP, the Lib Dems, or , is a major conservativeThe Liberal Democratic Party is widely described as conservative:

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* and nationalistSources describing the LDP as nationalist:

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* A Weiss (31 May 2018). Towards a Beautiful Japan: Right-Wing Religious Nationalism in Japan's LDP. political party in Japan. Since its foundation in 1955, the LDP has been in power almost continuously—a period called the 1955 System—except from 1993 to 1996, and again from 2009 to 2012.

The LDP was formed in 1955 as a merger of two conservative parties, the Liberal Party and the Japan Democratic Party, and was initially led by prime minister Ichirō Hatoyama. The LDP supported Japan's alliance with the United States and fostered close links between Japanese business and government, playing a major role in the country's economic miracle from the 1960s to early 1970s and subsequent stability under prime ministers including Hayato Ikeda, Eisaku Satō, Kakuei Tanaka, Takeo Fukuda, and Yasuhiro Nakasone. Scandals and economic difficulties led to the LDP losing power between 1993 and 1994, and governing under a non-LDP prime minister from 1994 to 1996. The LDP regained stability during the premiership of Junichiro Koizumi in the 2000s before achieving its worst-ever electoral result in the 2009 election. The party regained control of the government in a landslide victory at the 2012 election under Shinzo Abe. After the 2024 and 2022 elections the LDP currently holds 191 seats in the House of Representatives and 119 seats in the House of Councillors; the party has governed in coalition with Komeito since 1999. Since the 2017 general election, the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) has been its primary opponent in national politics.

The LDP is often described as a big tent conservative party, including factions that range from moderate conservatism to right-wing nationalism. Although lacking a cohesive political ideology, the party's platform has historically supported increased defense spending and, since the 21st century, maintaining close relations with its Indo-Pacific allies to counter the rise of China as a superpower. The party's history and internal composition has been characterized by intense factionalism among its members since its emergence in 1955. Shigeru Ishiba, Japan's incumbent prime minister, has served as party president since 27 September 2024.

History

Beginnings

The LDP was formed in 1955 as a merger between two of Japan's political parties, the and the , both conservative parties, as a united front against the then popular , now the . The party won the following elections, and Japan's first conservative government with a majority was formed by 1955. It would hold majority government until 1993.

The LDP began with reforming Japan's international relations, ranging from entry into the United Nations, to establishing diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union. Its leaders in the 1950s also made the LDP the main government party, and in all the elections of the 1950s, the LDP won the majority vote, with the only other opposition coming from left-wing politics, made up of the Japan Socialist Party and the Japanese Communist Party.

From the 1950s to the early 1970s, the United States Central Intelligence Agency spent millions of dollars to aid the LDP against leftist parties such as the Socialists and the Communists, although this was not revealed until the mid-1990s when it was exposed by ''The New York Times''. Details remain classified, while available documents show connections to prime ministers Nobusuke Kishi and Eisaku Satō from the Satō–Kishi–Abe family.

1960s to 1990s

For the majority of the 1960s, the LDP (and Japan) were led by Eisaku Satō, beginning with the hosting of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and ending in 1972 with Japanese neutrality in the Vietnam War and with the beginning of the Japanese asset price bubble. By the end of the 1970s, the LDP went into its decline, where even though it held the reins of government many scandals plagued the party, while the opposition (now joined with the Kōmeitō (1962–1998)) gained momentum.

In 1976, in the wake of the Lockheed bribery scandals, a handful of younger LDP Diet members broke away and established their own party, the New Liberal Club (Shin Jiyu Kurabu). A decade later, however, it was reabsorbed by the LDP.

By the late 1970s, the Japan Socialist Party, the Japanese Communist Party, and the Komeito along with the international community used major pressure to have Japan switch diplomatic ties from Taiwan (Republic of China) to the People's Republic of China.

In 1983, the LDP was a founding member of the International Democracy Union.

The LDP managed to consistently win elections for over three decades, and the LDP's decades in power allowed it to establish a highly stable process of policy formation. This process would not have been possible if other parties had secured parliamentary majorities. LDP strength was based on an enduring, although not unchallenged, coalition of big business, small business, agriculture, professional groups, and other interests. Elite bureaucrats collaborated closely with the party and interest groups in drafting and implementing policy. In a sense, the party's success was a result not of its internal strength but of its weakness. It lacked a strong, nationwide organization or consistent ideology with which to attract voters. Its leaders were rarely decisive, charismatic, or popular. But it functioned efficiently as a locus for matching interest group money and votes with bureaucratic power and expertise. This arrangement resulted in corruption, but the party could claim credit for helping to create economic growth and a stable, middle-class Japan.

Despite winning the 1986 general election by a landslide, by the end of 1980s, the LDP started to suffer setbacks in elections due to unpopular policies on trade liberalisation and tax, as well as a scandal involving their leader Sōsuke Uno and the Recruit scandal. The party lost its majority in the House of Councillors for the first time in 34 years in the 1989 election.

Out of power

The LDP managed to hold on to power in 1990 Japanese general election despite some losses. In June 1993, 10 members of the party's liberal-conservative faction split to form the New Party Sakigake. The end of the postwar miracle economy, the Japanese asset price bubble and other reasons such as the recruit scandal led to the LDP losing its majority in 1993 Japanese general election held in July of that year.

Seven opposition parties – including several formed by LDP dissidents – formed the Hosokawa government headed by Japan New Party leader and LDP dissident Morihiro Hosokawa, who became the Prime Minister preceded by Kiichi Miyazawa. However, the LDP was still far and away the largest party in the House of Representatives, with well over 200 seats; no other individual party crossed the 80-seat mark. Yohei Kono became the president of the LDP preceded by Kiichi Miyazawa, he was the first non-prime minister LDP leader as the leader of the opposition.

In 1994, the Japan Socialist Party and New Party Sakigake left the ruling coalition, joining the LDP in the opposition. The remaining members of the coalition tried to stay in power as the minority Hata Cabinet under the leadership of Tsutomu Hata, but this failed when the LDP and the Socialists, bitter rivals for 40 years, formed a majority coalition. The Murayama Cabinet was dominated by the LDP, but it allowed Socialist Tomiichi Murayama to occupy the Prime Minister's chair until 1996 when the LDP's Ryutaro Hashimoto took over.

1996–2009

In the 1996 election, the LDP made some gains but was still 12 seats short of a majority. However, no other party could possibly form a government, and Hashimoto formed a solidly LDP minority government. Through a series of floor-crossings, the LDP regained its majority within a year.

The party was practically unopposed until 1998 when the opposition Democratic Party of Japan was formed. This marked the beginning of the opposing parties' gains in momentum, especially in the 2003 and 2004 Parliamentary Elections, that would not slow for another 12 years.

In the dramatically paced 2003 House of Representatives elections, the LDP won 237 seats, while the DPJ won 177 seats. In the 2004 House of Councillors elections, in the seats up for grabs, the LDP won 49 seats and the DPJ 50, though in all seats (including those uncontested) the LDP still had a total of 114. Because of this electoral loss, former Secretary-General Shinzo Abe turned in his resignation, but Party President Koizumi merely demoted him in rank, and he was replaced by Tsutomu Takebe.

On 10 November 2003, the New Conservative Party (''Hoshu Shintō'') was absorbed into the LDP, a move which was largely because of the New Conservative Party's poor showing in the 2003 general election. The LDP formed a coalition with the conservative Buddhist New Komeito (party founded by Soka Gakkai) from Obuchi Second shuffle Cabinet (1999–2000).

After a victory in the 2005 Japanese general election, the LDP held an absolute majority in the Japanese House of Representatives and formed a coalition government with the New Komeito Party. Shinzo Abe succeeded then-Prime Minister Junichirō Koizumi as the president of the party on 20 September 2006. The party suffered a major defeat in the election of 2007, however, and lost its majority in the upper house for the first time in its history.

The LDP remained the largest party in both houses of the Diet, until 29 July 2007, when the LDP lost its majority in the upper house.

In a party leadership election held on 23 September 2007, the LDP elected Yasuo Fukuda as its president. Fukuda defeated Tarō Asō for the post, receiving 330 votes against 197 votes for Aso. However Fukuda resigned suddenly in September 2008, and Asō became Prime Minister after winning the presidency of the LDP in a five-way election.

In the 2009 general election, the LDP was roundly defeated, winning only 118 seats—easily the worst defeat of a sitting government in modern Japanese history, and also the first real transfer of political power in the post-war era. Accepting responsibility for this severe defeat, Aso announced his resignation as LDP president on election night. Sadakazu Tanigaki was elected leader of the party on 28 September 2009, after a three-way race, becoming only the second LDP leader who was not simultaneously prime minister.

2009–present

The party's support continued to decline, with prime ministers changing rapidly, and in the 2009 House of Representatives elections the LDP lost its majority, winning only 118 seats, marking the only time they would be out of the majority other than a brief period in 1993. Since that time, numerous party members have left to join other parties or form new ones, including , the and the . The party had some success in the 2010 House of Councilors election, netting 13 additional seats and denying the DPJ a majority. Abe became the president again in September 2012 after a five-way race. The LDP returned to power with its ally New Komeito after winning a clear majority in the lower house general election on 16 December 2012 after just over three years in opposition. Shinzo Abe became Prime Minister for the second time preceded by Yoshihiko Noda who was the leader of the DPJ.

In July 2015, the party pushed for expanded military powers to fight in foreign conflict through Shinzo Abe and the support of Komeito.

Yoshihide Suga took over from Shinzo Abe in September 2020 after a three-way race. After Suga declined to run for re-election, successor Fumio Kishida led the party to a victory in the October 2021 Japanese general election after a four-way race, defying expectations. Despite support dropping in 2022 after the assassination of Shinzo Abe over connections between various party members and the Unification Church, the party had a good showing in the 2023 Japanese unified local elections, winning over half of the 2260 prefectural assembly seats being contested and six governorship positions.

From 18 to 19 January 2024, following a scandal involving failure to report and misuse of ¥600 million in campaign funds by members of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan's conservative Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai and Shisuikai factions in violation of Japanese campaign finance and election law, three factions (Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai, Shisuikai, in addition to PM Kishida's Kōchikai) all announced their intention to dissolve entirely in hopes of restoring public trust. Several LDP lawmakers were indicted, including incumbent lawmakers Yasutada Ōno and Yaichi Tanigawa, who both resigned from the party following their indictments.

In the 2024 Japanese general election, the governing LDP and its coalition partner Komeito lost their parliamentary majority in the lower house for the first time since 2009, with the LDP suffering its second-worst result in its history, securing only 191 seats. The Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), the main opposition party led by former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, achieved its best result in its history, increasing its seat count from 96 to 148. This was the first general election in Japan since the 1955 election wherein no party secured at least 200 seats.
The election outcome is largely attributed to a major slush fund scandal that emerged in November. Millions of yen raised at LDP faction events were illegally funneled into secret accounts, violating political financing laws. This scandal implicated 82 lawmakers from both parliamentary houses, including factions associated with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The scandal, combined with low approval ratings and economic stagnation, led to Kishida's resignation in August. His successor, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, called for a snap election in September to bolster support. However, the LDP's attempts to distance itself from the scandal backfired when reports surfaced that the party continued to provide funds to chapters headed by implicated members. In response to the election results, the prime minister has committed to implementing fundamental reforms regarding money in politics. The LDP's coalition partner, Komeito, also performed poorly, with its leader Keiichi Ishii losing his seat and subsequently announcing his resignation. This electoral setback is particularly significant for the LDP, which has held power almost continuously since 1955, highlighting the impact of the corruption scandal on public trust in the party.

Ideology and political stance

The LDP is usually associated with conservatism, Japanese nationalism and being on the political right of the political spectrum. The LDP has been described as a variety of disparate ideologies such as conservative-liberal, liberal-conservative, social-conservative, ultranationalist, and ultraconservative. The party though has not espoused a well-defined, unified ideology or political philosophy, due to its long-term government, and has been described as a " catch-all" party.

The LDP members hold a variety of positions that could be broadly defined as being to the right of main opposition parties. Many of its ministers, including former Prime Ministers Fumio Kishida, Yoshihide SugaAbe's reshuffle promotes right-wingers
(Korea Joongang Daily – 2014/09/05) and Shinzo Abe, are/were affiliated with the parliamentary league of Nippon Kaigi, a far-right ultraconservative lobby group. In Japanese politics, the convention is to classify the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party as occupying the conservative and progressive ends of the ideological spectrum respectively. However, this classification has faced challenges, especially among younger generations, since the 1990s.

The LDP has also been compared to the corporatist-inspired model of conservative parties, such as the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, in its relative openness towards economic interventionism, mixed market coordination and public expenditure, when compared to neoliberal orthodoxy.

History

In the case of the LDP administration under the 1955 System in Japan, their degree of economic control was stronger than that of Western conservative governments; it was also positioned closer to social democracy. Since the 1970s, the oil crisis has slowed economic growth and increased the resistance of urban citizens to policies that favor farmers. To maintain its dominant position, the LDP sought to expand party supporters by incorporating social security policies and pollution measures advocated by opposition parties. It was also historically closely positioned to corporate statism.

2021 manifesto

During the 2021 general election, the party released the LDP policy manifesto, titled "Create a new era together with you", which included support for policies such as:
* Wealth redistribution to revive the Japanese economy and empowering the middle class
* Tax breaks for corporations willing to raise wages
* Advance administrative reforms to facilitate digital transformation throughout society
* High investment in science and technology and increased funds for university research
* Secure robust supply chains for critical materials, such as rare earths
* Continued development of nuclear fusion power generation, and expansion of renewable energy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050
* Reaching UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals targets
* Offer subsidies for enterprises if they move into new industries
* Electronic COVID-19 vaccine passports
* Expanding support for small and medium businesses hit by the COVID-19 pandemic
* Constitutional amendments, including the proposed Japanese constitutional referendum to formalize the current existence of the Japan Self-Defense Forces in Article 9 of the Constitution and creating an emergency response clause
* Raising Japan's defense budget from the current 1% to "two percent or more" of gross domestic product (GDP) and enhancing Japan's defense capabilities
* Advance understanding of LGBT rights, although the party is not in favor of same-sex marriage, with 50% of its election candidates being "undecided" and those opposed largely outnumbering those in favor
* Acceptance of foreign workers and improving management to cover labor shortages
* Support Taiwan's bid to join the CPTPP agreement and WHO observer status
* Promoting further nuclear disarmament and nuclear nonproliferation

Factions

Since the genesis of the Liberal Democratic Party in 1955, history and internal composition has been characterized by intense factionalism among its members since its emergence in 1955. Despite the change of factions, their history can be traced back to their 1955 roots, a testament to the stability and institutionalized nature of Liberal Democratic Party factions. The party's history and internal composition have been characterized by intense factionalism ever since its emergence in 1955, with its parliamentary members currently split among six factions, each of which vies for influence in the party and the government.

All major factions that have existed in the history of the party can be categorised into the following two groups: the Conservative Mainstream (保守本流), which originated from Shigeru Yoshida's Liberal Party, and the Conservative Substream (保守傍流), which traces its roots to Ichirō Hatoyama's Japan Democratic Party.

The Conservative Mainstream has traditionally been associated with moderate, welfarist, and centrist policies and has included the Kōchikai (historical members include Hayato Ikeda, Masayoshi Ōhira, Kiichi Miyazawa, Fumio Kishida, and Yoshimasa Hayashi), the (Kakuei Tanaka), and the Heisei Kenkyūkai (formerly Keiseikai, with historical members include Noboru Takeshita, Keizō Obuchi, Ryutarō Hashimoto, and Toshimitsu Motegi). The only extant faction, Shikōkai, is part of this group.福永文夫. (2005). 派閥構造から見た宏池会: 組織・人的構成・リクルートメント. ''獨協法学'', (67), 横-75.

The Conservative Substream, on the other hand, has typically included hard-line and nationalistic factions such as the Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai (Takeo Fukuda, Shintarō Abe, Junichirō Koizumi, and Shinzō Abe) and the Shisuikai (formerly Seisaku Kagaku Kenkyūjo, associated with Yasuhiro Nakasone, Bunmei Ibuki, Shizuka Kamei, and Toshihiro Nikai). A notable exception within this group was the Banchō Seisaku Kenkyūjo (founded by Takeo Miki and Kenzō Matsumura), which was known for its leftist and progressive policies.

In the aftermath of the slush fund scandal involving members of the Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai and the Shisuikai, then-party president and prime minister Fumio Kishida decided to dissolve all factions in January 2024. All factions, except for Shikōkai, led by former prime minister Tarō Asō, complied with this directive, making it the only extant faction.

Structure

At the apex of the LDP's formal organization is the , who can serve three three-year terms. (The presidential term was increased from two years to three years in 2002 and from two to three terms in 2017). When the party has a parliamentary majority, the party president is the prime minister. The choice of party president is formally that of a party convention composed of Diet members and local LDP figures, but in most cases, they merely approved the joint decision of the most powerful party leaders. To make the system more democratic, Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda introduced a "primary" system in 1978, which opened the balloting to some 1.5 million LDP members. The process was so costly and acrimonious, however, that it was subsequently abandoned in favor of the old "smoke-filled room" method—so-called in allusion to the notion of closed discussions held in small rooms filled with tobacco smoke.

After the party president, the most important LDP officials are the Secretary-General (''kanjicho''), the chairmen of the LDP Executive Council (''somukaicho''), and of the .

Leadership

As of 12 November 2024:

Membership

The LDP had over 5.5 million party members in 1991. By December 2017, membership had dropped to approximately one million members. In 2023, the LDP had 1,091,075 members, a decrease of 33,688 from the year before.

Performance in national elections until 1993

Election statistics show that, while the LDP had been able to secure a majority in the twelve House of Representatives elections from May 1958 to February 1990, with only three exceptions (December 1976, October 1979, and December 1983), its share of the popular vote had declined from a high of 57.8% in May 1958 to a low of 41.8% in December 1976, when voters expressed their disgust with the party's involvement in the Lockheed scandal. The LDP vote rose again between 1979 and 1990. Although the LDP won an unprecedented 300 seats in the July 1986 balloting, its share of the popular vote remained just under 50%. The figure was 46.2% in February 1990. Following the three occasions when the LDP found itself a handful of seats shy of a majority, it was obliged to form alliances with conservative independents and the breakaway New Liberal Club. In a cabinet appointment after the October 1983 balloting, a non-LDP minister, a member of the New Liberal Club, was appointed for the first time. On 18 July 1993, in lower house elections, the LDP fell so far short of a majority that it was unable to form a government.

In the upper house, the July 1989 election represented the first time that the LDP was forced into a minority position. In previous elections, it had either secured a majority on its own or recruited non-LDP conservatives to make up the difference of a few seats.

The political crisis of 1988–89 was testimony to both the party's strength and its weakness. In the wake of a succession of issues—the pushing of a highly unpopular consumer tax through the Diet in late 1988, the Recruit insider trading scandal, which tainted virtually all top LDP leaders and forced the resignation of Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita in April (a successor did not appear until June), the resignation in July of his successor, Sōsuke Uno, because of a sex scandal, and the poor showing in the upper house election—the media provided the Japanese with a detailed and embarrassing dissection of the political system. By March 1989, popular support for the Takeshita cabinet as expressed in public opinion polls had fallen to 9%. Uno's scandal, covered in magazine interviews of a "kiss and tell" geisha, aroused the fury of female voters.

Uno's successor, the eloquent if obscure Toshiki Kaifu, was successful in repairing the party's battered image. By January 1990, talk of the waning of conservative power and a possible socialist government had given way to the realization that, like the Lockheed affair of the mid-1970s, the Recruit scandal did not signal a significant change in who ruled Japan. The February 1990 general election gave the LDP, including affiliated independents, a comfortable, if not spectacular, majority: 275 of 512 total representatives.

In October 1991, Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu failed to attain passage of a political reform bill and was rejected by the LDP, despite his popularity with the electorate. He was replaced as prime minister by Kiichi Miyazawa, a long-time LDP stalwart. Defections from the LDP began in the spring of 1992, when Morihiro Hosokawa left the LDP to form the Japan New Party. Later, in the summer of 1993, when the Miyazawa government also failed to pass political reform legislation, thirty-nine LDP members joined the opposition in a no-confidence vote. In the ensuing lower house election, more than fifty LDP members formed the Shinseitō and the Sakigake parties, denying the LDP the majority needed to form a government.

Election results

Legislative results

House of Representatives

House of Councillors

Logos

Liberal Democratic Party of Japan logo.svg, Liberal Democratic Party's logo (before 2017)
Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (Red).svg, Liberal Democratic Party's red variant logo (since 2017)

Notes

References

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Japan Country Studies – Library of Congress

Bibliography

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* Köllner, Patrick. "The Liberal Democratic Party at 50: Sources of Dominance and Changes in the Koizumi Era", ''Social Science Japan Journal'' (Oct 2006) 9#2 pp 243–257.
* Krauss, Ellis S., and Robert J. Pekkanen. "The Rise and Fall of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party", ''Journal of Asian Studies'' (2010) 69#1 pp 5–15, focuses on the 2009 election.
* Krauss, Ellis S., and Robert J. Pekkanen, eds. ''The Rise and Fall of Japan's LDP: Political Party Organizations as Historical Institutions'' (Cornell University Press; 2010) 344 pages; essays by scholars
* Scheiner, Ethan. ''Democracy without Competition in Japan: Opposition Failure in a One-Party Dominant State'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006)

External links

The official website of the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party)

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Politics of Japan
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