The DNA of Japan’s Post-war Political System: Ultra-conservative to the Core

Abstract

The Japanese described their post-war governing system as a ‘ruling triad’ of elite bureaucrats, conservative politicians and leading businessmen. The Liberal Democratic Party dominated Japanese politics from 1955 to 2009 with the exception of a brief three-year break from 1993–6. In most Western countries, no single party has been in power long enough to give bureaucrats the consistent support to draft laws and implement policies nor are there democratic societies where ministries can operate unfettered by legal sanction as they operate in Japan. There are three key reasons for this unwavering support:

• 1. 1. Japan’s political economic system can be characterized as pork-barrel and protectionist. Big business and business federations made large contributions to LDP coffers. The LDP received votes and large donations from traditional support groups, such as small local firms and from businesses engaged in construction, transportation and telecommunications, in exchange for public works projects.

• 2. 2. The LDP received substantial support from special interest groups represented by the ministries vis-à-vis industrial associations and federations.

• 3. 3. The network of bureaucrats throughout Japan’s socio-political system. Bureaucrats traditionally have sought political office in both national and local government Diets and as governors and vice-governors in the prefectures. When the snap election was held on 11 September after Koizumi dissolved the Lower House in 2005 ninety-five former government officials ran for seats, fifty-seven on the LDP ticket and twenty-five on the DPJ ticket. Koizumi himself recruited an elite career official from the MOF to stand in the election. Satsuki Katayama had entered the MOF in 1982 and achieved a number of influential positions in the ministry, including Director of the Policy Evaluation Office, Director of Overall Coordination Division in the ministry’s Secretariat in 2000, and Director of Legal Affairs in the Budget Bureau in 2004.