Why Has Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party Survived for So Long?
Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party has maintained power for all but a very short time in the early 1990s since its formation in 1955. And the conservative Liberal and Democratic Parties that combined to form the LDP in 1955, before that. There are a number of explanations of why and how that happened. I’ve always believed the LDP was able to remain in power for so long simply because it lacked credible opposition. The Socialists, the Communists – even the Komeito – all appealed to a relatively small sector of Japan’s voting population. They did little to broaden their support within Japan’s attentive public to the extent they really could challenge the LDP’s majority status. But, even if true, that explanation raises a more fundamental question. Why didn’t a political party emerge capable of offering the LDP a genuine challenge? That question’s more difficult to answer. First, the incumbent Diet Members, and the groups and individuals who got and kept them elected, were comfortable with
