The Jiminto or the Liberal Democratic Party(LDP) has been the largest center right, conservative party in Japan ever since its foundation dating back in the year 1955. Within four decades of power the LDP has established a stable process of policy formation. Despite the stable ruling, LDPs popularity gradually declined leading to its "momentarily" disbanding from 1993 to 1996. It came back to power as a majority party. In 1998, the DPJ or the Democratic Party of Japan was formed and it was the beginning of the formal opposition against the LDP. Through the years, persistent opposition against the LDP has been observed throughout Japan, however, no opposition has been successful in overthrowing the Jiminto.
This irony regarding the LDP has often led to the question which is:
Why is it that, despite the oppositions, the LDP still emerges as the most influential party in Japan?
At first, I thought that the reason is that it is in Japan's culture to not oppose something dominant and/or influential. I thought that for the Japanese, as long as they think that the party is doing something beneficial they wouldn't strike a stone against it. When I watched Professor Ethan Scheiner, Ph.D. 's discussion about the failure of opposition failure in Japan, it all made sense. Majority of the people in Japan are opposed, but because they make rational decisions for the country, the LDP ends up winning.
Professor Scheiner, Ph.D. gave on why the LDP continue to be powerful. The first significant reason is that the LDP has more "quality" or experienced candidates. They are candidates who were former local office holders, or in other cases candidates who inherited their seat from a family tie. In Yamauchi Kazuhiko's case, he is a graduate of a prominent university which is Tokyo Daigakku or frequently addressed as ToDai. Many bureaucrats are from this university. This maybe the reason why Yamauchi was chosen. Even opposing parties confirms that the LDP do have candidates that have quality and in a basic notion quality and experience is a key to party success. The significance of the candidates' quality to the people is evident in elections because when it comes to candidate voting the LDP gains much support compared to party voting where they only get around 20% to 30% of support.
Clientelism and Financial Centralized System are the other significant factors. Clientelism refers to a patron-client relationship wherein the patron provides the needs of the client. Financial Centralized System is the allocation of the central government to the Subnational and Local areas. Professor Scheiner, Ph.D. said that "To gain central funding, local politicians have incentive to ally with national ruling parties" which in this case is the LDP. The Link to national budget is important and every areas/prefectures is dependent on the central government thus people tend to vote for candidates who they think have or known to have bonds with the national politicians who can mitigate with the central governement.
Another factor is that the LDP hold more local offices than the oppositions. There are two cases in which parties can gain strength, according to Professor Scheiner,Ph.D., first is that parties cannot be influential in the national level without gaining at local level and the other case is that parties cannot gain strength at local level without holding power at the national level thus the opposition could not successfully overcome the LDP. In addition, the LDP continues to dominate rural areas.
The Jiminto or the Liberal Democratic Party might continue to be the dominating party in Japan unless changes occur such as decentralization movements, anti-clientelism or the rise of another oppositional party like the DPJ. However, as long as the situation remains the same the Jiminto or the LDP will continue to be the powerful,yet unpopular, party in Japan.
This irony regarding the LDP has often led to the question which is:
Why is it that, despite the oppositions, the LDP still emerges as the most influential party in Japan?
At first, I thought that the reason is that it is in Japan's culture to not oppose something dominant and/or influential. I thought that for the Japanese, as long as they think that the party is doing something beneficial they wouldn't strike a stone against it. When I watched Professor Ethan Scheiner, Ph.D. 's discussion about the failure of opposition failure in Japan, it all made sense. Majority of the people in Japan are opposed, but because they make rational decisions for the country, the LDP ends up winning.
Professor Scheiner, Ph.D. gave on why the LDP continue to be powerful. The first significant reason is that the LDP has more "quality" or experienced candidates. They are candidates who were former local office holders, or in other cases candidates who inherited their seat from a family tie. In Yamauchi Kazuhiko's case, he is a graduate of a prominent university which is Tokyo Daigakku or frequently addressed as ToDai. Many bureaucrats are from this university. This maybe the reason why Yamauchi was chosen. Even opposing parties confirms that the LDP do have candidates that have quality and in a basic notion quality and experience is a key to party success. The significance of the candidates' quality to the people is evident in elections because when it comes to candidate voting the LDP gains much support compared to party voting where they only get around 20% to 30% of support.
Clientelism and Financial Centralized System are the other significant factors. Clientelism refers to a patron-client relationship wherein the patron provides the needs of the client. Financial Centralized System is the allocation of the central government to the Subnational and Local areas. Professor Scheiner, Ph.D. said that "To gain central funding, local politicians have incentive to ally with national ruling parties" which in this case is the LDP. The Link to national budget is important and every areas/prefectures is dependent on the central government thus people tend to vote for candidates who they think have or known to have bonds with the national politicians who can mitigate with the central governement.
Another factor is that the LDP hold more local offices than the oppositions. There are two cases in which parties can gain strength, according to Professor Scheiner,Ph.D., first is that parties cannot be influential in the national level without gaining at local level and the other case is that parties cannot gain strength at local level without holding power at the national level thus the opposition could not successfully overcome the LDP. In addition, the LDP continues to dominate rural areas.
The Jiminto or the Liberal Democratic Party might continue to be the dominating party in Japan unless changes occur such as decentralization movements, anti-clientelism or the rise of another oppositional party like the DPJ. However, as long as the situation remains the same the Jiminto or the LDP will continue to be the powerful,yet unpopular, party in Japan.
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