Sixty Years of Conservative Party

Sixty years had passed on Sunday, since Liberal Democratic Party had been established by the merge of Japan Democratic Party and Liberal Party in 1955. LDP was in charge of leading Japanese administration for most of postwar period. While it has been a party to represent conservative movements, LDP had an aspect of the reformer, trying to meet various demands of the people. Now, the party looks like returning old conservatism under the leadership of retrogressive Prime Minister.

International regime in Cold War caused political integrations both on the conservative and the leftist in 1955. LDP started its history in the time of reintegration of Socialist Party of Japan. Since then, LDP has been in charge of leading Japanese government except one year of coalitional administrations led by Morihiro Hosokawa and Tsutomu Hata in 1990s and three years by Democratic Party of Japan between 2009 and 2012. “Recognizing our original concept that politics is for the people, we will promote ambitious future-looking reforms, listening to the voices from region,” told LDP Secretary General, Sadakazu Tanigaki, in his statement delivered on Sunday.

While it includes constitutional amendment in its party manifesto, LDP had long been devoted to economic progress of Japan without actual efforts for reviewing Constitution of Japan. It was Jun-ichiro Koizumi administration when internal movement for the amendment grew in the party. As supposed to be a successor of Koizumi politics, Abe has been active in reviewing Constitution of Japan. Although he avoided stepping into constitutional amendment last year, when he changed traditional interpretation of Article 9 that the Constitution was prohibiting exercise of collective self-defense, Abe has still been ambitious to integrate conservative power enough to take initiative in the Diet.

In the process of reintegration of conservative movement, fractions in LDP became less active these years. In the presidential election of LDP in 1956, lawmakers in the party were categorized into five groups led by candidates: Nobusuke Kishi, Ichiro Kono, Takeo Miki, Hayato Ikeda and Eisaku Sato. It was the starting point of fraction politics of LDP, which caused money scandals represented by Lockheed Scandal of Kakusi Tanaka. Under unilateral leadership of Koizumi or Abe, political groups in LDP lost their power.

One character of LDP had been party-oriented politics, in which party leaders had great influence to Prime Minister’s office. Distribution of wealth rooted on party organization that reflected various voices from regions is no longer needed in low-growth economy these years. It is fair to say that Abe is taking advantage of that political tendency for his top-down style politics. The point is whether that authoritarianism will be welcomed by the people.