Liberal-Democratic Party of Japan

Liberal-Democratic Party of Japan (LDP), Japan’s largest political party, which has held power almost continuously since its formation in 1955. The party has generally worked closely with business interests and followed a pro-U.S. foreign policy. During nearly four decades of uninterrupted power (1955–93), the LDP oversaw Japan’s remarkable recovery from World War II and its development into an economic superpower. The party largely retained control of the government from the mid-1990s, the main exception being the period 2009–12, when the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) was in power.

History

Although the LDP was formally created in 1955, its antecedents can be traced back to political parties of the 19th century. These parties formed before Japan even had a constitution, a parliament, or elections and were primarily protest groups against the government. One of these was the Jiyūtō (Liberal Party), formed in 1881, which advocated a radical agenda of democratic reform and popular sovereignty. The Rikken Kaishintō (Constitutional Reform Party) was a more moderate alternative, formed in 1882, advocating parliamentary democracy along British lines. Party names and alliances continued to be fluid after the first elections in 1890, eventually leading to the creation of Rikken Seiyūkai (Friends of Constitutional Government) and Seiyūkai’s main rival, which operated under several names: Shimpotō (Progressive Party), Kenseikai (Constitutional Party), and finally Minseitō (Democratic Party). With the rise of militarism in Japan, however, the political parties lost influence. In 1940 they disbanded, and many of their members joined the government-sponsored Imperial Rule Assistance Association (Taisei Yokusankai).

The Japanese surrender at the end of World War II in 1945 was followed by a decade of political confusion. New parties were formed from the remnants of the old ones: the Liberal Party built on the old Seiyūkai, whereas the Progressive Party drew on factions of both the Seiyūkai and the Minseitō. The party system was highly fluid, with parties frequently merging or dissolving. For example, from 1945 to 1954 the Progressive Party changed its name four times, becoming the Democratic Party in 1947, the National Democratic Party in 1950, the Reform Party in 1952, and finally the Japan Democratic Party in 1954. In 1947–48 this party also joined with the Socialist Party to form a brief coalition government under the auspices of the U.S.-led occupation of Japan (1945–52).

Other than this coalition government, it was common for two or three conservative parties to dominate Japan’s political scene in the first postwar decade. This decade ended on November 15, 1955, when the Democrats and the Liberals formally united to form the Liberal-Democratic Party. With this merger, the LDP established itself as the conservative alternative to the growing power of the socialist and communist parties.

Two cleavages were important in the first years of the party. The first pitted LDP politicians who previously had worked in the national bureaucracy before becoming LDP candidates against those who had served as politicians before and during World War II. The bureaucratic group had a powerful protégé in Yoshida Shigeru, an ex-bureaucrat who served as leader of the Liberal Party and as prime minister of Japan during most of the occupation. The ex-bureaucrats filled the gap left when the occupation authorities banned nearly all former politicians from active participation in politics. As these bans were lifted in the late 1940s and early ’50s and these politicians returned to politics, however, the conflict between these two groups led to a power struggle within the LDP.

The second cleavage centred on the tension between conservative and nationalist party leaders who advocated a revision of some elements of Japan’s new constitution (which had been drawn up by occupation authorities and included prohibitions on waging war and maintaining a military) and those who defended the new constitutional framework. This specific issue divided the party, but its foreign policy corollary—the question of Japan’s relations with the United States—divided the LDP from its socialist and communist opponents. These debates reached a fever pitch with the massive public protests in 1960 against Japan’s ratification of the main security treaty between the United States and Japan. The party forced the ratification through the lower house of the Diet (legislature) in a special midnight session after police had removed opposition politicians who were blocking the session’s opening. Public outrage precipitated the resignation of Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke, and his successors set aside the divisive issues of constitutional reform and foreign policy and focused instead on an agenda of economic growth.

Although the LDP maintained its majority in the 1970s, its support began to waver, and opposition electoral successes led the LDP to adopt two positions central to the opposition’s platform: pollution control and an improved social welfare system. Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei also established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China and implemented massive new public works projects, many of which generally benefited LDP supporters in rural areas (including in Tanaka’s home prefecture) by shifting public works spending to those areas. Tanaka was subsequently charged with taking kickbacks from companies that benefited from his policies, and he resigned as prime minister in 1974 and was arrested two years later. Nevertheless, he continued to rule the LDP’s largest faction by strategically directing politicians loyal to him and was often able to dictate who became prime minister. Scandals regularly plagued LDP governments, but the party lost power only in 1993, when several groups of LDP representatives defected from the party to form new conservative political parties. In elections held that year, the LDP lost its majority in the House of Representatives and—for the first time in its history—control of the government.

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Within a year the LDP had returned to government as the largest party in a coalition with the Social Democratic Party of Japan (formerly the Japan Socialist Party) and the small Sakigake Party. The LDP wooed the Social Democrats into this coalition by giving the office of prime minister to the Social Democrats’ leader, Murayama Tomiichi. Following Murayama’s resignation in 1996, the LDP once more took control of the prime minister’s office. However, the party’s fortunes again declined during the brief and unpopular tenure (2000–01) of Mori Yoshiro as prime minister, exacerbated by a serious economic downturn. His successor, Koizumi Junichiro, promised political and economic reform and won election as party president despite the opposition of many LDP parliamentarians. Koizumi subsequently led the LDP to victory in several national elections, including a landslide victory in 2005 that was the LDP’s second best performance in its history. Koizumi fought this election against members of his own party who had defeated his plan to privatize the Japanese postal system (a large government agency that also sells insurance and provides private banking services). Koizumi expelled opponents of this reform from the LDP and contested the election on this reform proposal, winning an emphatic public endorsement.

In 2006 Koizumi left office because of LDP term limits, and he was succeeded by Abe Shinzo. Over the course of the following year, Abe’s personal popularity and the party’s standing dropped, traced in large part to public anger over the government’s loss of 50 million pension records and the resulting problems associated with handling public inquiries. In elections to the House of Councillors (the upper house of the Diet) in July 2007, the LDP suffered one of its worst defeats, winning only 37 of the 121 seats contested and losing the majority it enjoyed with its partner, New Kōmeitō (a Buddhist-oriented smaller party), to the DPJ and its allies. It also lost its status as the largest party in the House of Councillors for the first time since the LDP had been founded. In the wake of this defeat, Abe stepped down as prime minister in September and was replaced by Fukuda Yasuo, who, frustrated by the DPJ’s ability to thwart legislation in the upper house, lasted a scant year in office. His successor, Asō Tarō, was faced with growing voter dissatisfaction. In the historic August 2009 lower-house elections, the DPJ won an overwhelming victory. The LDP, suffering its worst-ever defeat, was swept from power, and in mid-September Asō resigned as prime minister.

The LDP constituted the main opposition in the Diet during the DPJ’s less than three and a half years in power, which included, midway through its tenure, the devastating March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan. The LDP did achieve significant gains in the July 2010 upper-house elections, which made it harder for the DPJ government to pass legislation. Opposition to DPJ rule mounted in 2012, especially after the government of Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko pushed through the Diet a controversial bill to raise the national consumption (sales) tax in three steps. LDP pressure forced Noda to dissolve the lower house in mid-November, and in parliamentary elections for that body, held on December 16, LDP candidates scored an overwhelming victory, garnering 294 seats and a majority. The party, in coalition with New Kōmeitō, achieved a supermajority of more than two-thirds of the membership. On December 26 the LDP-controlled chamber selected Abe Shinzo—who had been elected party leader in September—to succeed Noda as prime minister. The party then secured complete control of the reins of government with a strong showing in the July 2013 upper-house elections, during which its candidates, combined with those of New Kōmeitō, won enough seats to reach a majority in that chamber.

Abe’s government initially enjoyed strong popular support, as its policies (dubbed “Abenomics”) produced strong economic growth in 2013 and early 2014. Following the implementation of the second raise in the consumption tax in April 2014, however, the country’s economy declined and was in recession by autumn. The popularity of Abe and the LDP dropped considerably, and, in an effort to obtain another mandate, he dissolved the lower house and called for early parliamentary elections. The polling, held on December 14, was another LDP landslide. The party won 291 seats and, with its partner New Kōmeitō, maintained a two-thirds supermajority in the chamber. Voters, however, were apathetic and turned out in record-low numbers. Abe was elected to a second consecutive term as head of the party in September 2015.