The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan: The Realities of ‘Power’

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Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of illustrations Series editor preface Preface Glossary of main terms and abbreviations Chapter 1: Factions: The ‘parties within a party’ weaken On the road to retreat The twilight of the Heiseiken The case of the Kōchikai Has the Seiwakai’s time come? The growing number of Diet members without faction affiliation Factions in former times Characteristics of LDP factions Party presidential elections and factions The medium-size constituency system and factions Tanaka Kakuei and the evolution of faction politics Lost functionality Political reforms and faction numbers grow The retreat of factions from election campaigning The weakening of the financing clout of factions The impact of political fund system reform Residual functions and how top-down control became institutionalised How members join factions after being elected Factions as human networks Shisuikai as an exception How factions support the LDP’s top-down control Notes Chapter 2: Party presidential elections and the distribution of positions: The increasing power of the party president Party presidential elections become increasingly faction-free The faction boss as a party presidential candidate The Koizumi revolution and the increasing importance of a ‘brand ambassador’ in elections The emergence of right-wing ideological groups The revival of the Abe leadership and reformation of LDP factions Shifting personnel practices Factions as the constituents of the system The LDP’s personnel management practices that seek balance between the factions start to slide The seniority rule (‘rule of elections won’) The rise of selective appointments to high office How are positions distributed? Changes to the methods of appointments to cabinet and the three top party roles Other government, Diet and party positions Canvassing career aspirations The increasing importance of formal appointment making power The growing power of the party president The considerable powers vested in the secretary general ‘Separation of offices of president and secretary general’ is abandoned, and the curtailment of secretary general’s power The lengthening of the party presidential term and the democratisation of party presidential elections Prime Minister Abe’s techniques of personnel management Notes Chapter 3: The policy making process: The LDP’s system of preliminary review and prime minister-led politics What is the ‘preliminary review system’? The creation of a bottom-up consensus Multi-layered adjustment mechanisms The ‘policy tribes’ How is leadership exercised? Koizumi’s reforms as crisis Policy making increasingly directed top-down Preliminary review system refuses to die Postal privatisation: the preliminary review system in tumult The preliminary review system survives Politics led by the prime minister’s office under the Abe government An evolving top-down style of government Adroit uses of the preliminary review system The JA reform The decline of the policy tribes The persistence of the preliminary review system The constraints of the coalition government with the Kōmeitō Lessons from the collapse of the DPJ government Japan’s Diet is trammelled by strict time constraints The cabinet has no sway over Diet committees Notes Chapter 4: National elections: The LDP Diet membership’s underlying two-tier structure Though it is weakening, the organised vote remains key Declining absolute share of votes Party leader popularity and the increasing importance in winning the nonpartisan vote Communications strategy reforms: two revamps Divided opposition and low voter turnout Election cooperation with the Kōmeitō The strategic importance of the Kōmeitō vote What’s in it for the Kōmeitō? Evolution of electoral cooperation between the LDP and the Kōmeitō A highly-strung relationship Open candidate recruitment The system developed in three phases Why was open candidate recruitment introduced? From central leadership to local control Open recruitment of candidates at a cross-roads The emerging two tiers of LDP Diet members The career backgrounds of LDP Diet members Female candidates Hereditary Diet members The party executive: the growing power of endorsement and the limits of such power Notes Chapter 5: The partner organisations of the LDP: Their votes and money in decline LDP supremacy in Japanese group politics How the party engages with partner organisations: attention to detail The world of Japanese business and the establishment of the LDP The development of pork barrel politics Second provisional commission for administrative reform only manages limited reform Falling membership and loss of influence Non-LDP coalition government and political reform The relationship with interest groups is rebuilt, but with limited effect Under attack from Koizumi’s structural reform Overcoming the DPJ government Changes in partner organisations as seen through the data Votes won in the upper house PR elections Religious groups are no exception The numbers of workplace party members Funding by corporations and other organisations The Keidanren and its system of corporate contributions ‘Insurance premium for a market economy’ Intercessions for corporate donations cease The concept of ‘social contribution’ and formulas for policy evaluation Policy evaluation approach revived, but in a diminished state Notes Chapter 6: The local party and personal support organisations: Foundations of LDP’s strength The LDP’s firm grip on local communities The importance of local party is re-confirmed The prefectural assemblies City, ward, town and village assemblies Conservative independents The party’s local comeback The local LDP organisation and political reform Decentralisation reform and the ‘Great Heisei Municipal Mergers’ The Koizumi reforms and LDP’s retreat from them The bridgehead for the counter-offensive against the DPJ government Personal support organisations as LDP’s rank and file organisation What is a personal support organisation? The unchanging vote-gathering machine The decline of personal support organisations Party member quotas The changing relationship between Diet members and local assembly members LDP’s decentralised organisation Loosening affiliations led by lower house member Changes to the way prefectural party organisations are managed Weakening links between party Headquarters and the local organisations Notes Conclusion: The LDP today – shifting organisationand changing ideas Comparing the Koizumi and Abe administrations The impact of political reform and the emergence of the DPJ Koizumi Jun’ichirō and his fight with ‘reactionary forces’ Abe Shinzō and party conciliation through personnel management Neoliberal reforms and pork barrel politics Doctrine shifts to the right The waning of populist political methods The LDP and the future of Japanese politics 2017 general elections and beyond Continuance of the LDP–Kōmeitō coalition government Abe’s unrivalled leadership The harmful effects of the Japan’s longest cabinet Notes Chronology of events Index