Japan

Abstract

During the period that concerns the book, that is, between 1990 and 2010, there are two benchmark years that are noted by “tremors” of big proportion. First, 1993–1994, second, 2009–2010. Prior to 1993–1994 the one-party dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was the hall mark of Japanese party system. Some¹ say it is a one-and-a-half party system in which the governing party occupied two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives whereas one-third was occupied by the opposition parties, most importantly by the Japan Socialist Parties and the Japan Communist Parties. It is a party system in which a united Conservative Party and a united Socialist party competed without the former giving a chance to the latter. The one-and-a-half party system was the result of a fierce and fluid party system that prevailed after Japan’s defeat and the occupation by the United States, roughly between 1945 and 1955. In 1955 both the Conservatives and Progressives were united among themselves. Prior to 1955 the Progressives, especially the Socialists, diverged over the terms of the Peace Treaty and the Japan–United States Security Treaty, the right-wing and left-wing Socialists. Prior to 1955 the Conservatives diverged over the distance with which Japan held vis-à-vis the United States, the occupier and the key and only ally.