Japan's Blairite Dream. . - Reviews - Opposition Politics in Japan: Strategies under a One-Party Dominant Regime - book review

Opposition Politics in Japan: Strategies under a One-Party Dominant Regime. Stephen Johnson. Routledge. [pounds sterling] 55.00. 207 pages. ISBN 0-415-20187-X.

Japan's party political structures have been in turmoil for some time. Nevertheless the Upper House Elections of July 2001 were something of an anti-climax. The Jiyu Minshuto (LDP: Liberal Democratic Party), after almost ten years of electoral decline in the Upper House of the Japanese Parliament, increased the number of their seats and witnessed an increase in their level of support in urban areas which have traditionally supported the opposition parties. This being true the LDP have not really recovered their once strongly dominant position in the Upper House.

The position of new LDP Sori-daijin (Prime Minister), Junichiro Koizumi, has been a remarkable one. His public popularity has outstripped anything seen in recent years. Curiously too, his politics are a direct threat to his core voters, for his reductions in public works' spending, a mix of public and private finance for transport and the privatisation of the Post Office, would have a negative effect on his core areas of support in Japan's rural hinterland. One international correspondent has averred that Koizumi has 'done a Tony Blair' and cynically 'stolen the opposition's policies'.

Japan's opposition parties are lining up to dent Koizumi's popularity and undermine his powerbase. The spectre of recession is growing in Japan, with higher levels of unemployment, that is, loss of subsidies in rural Japan. Koizumi will be more vulnerable when his current supporters, businessmen and public sector employees, see their jobs threatened by the proposed privatisation and deregulation plans. The 'middle Japan' (comparable to Tony Blair's 'middle England' supporters) vote is soft and the opposition parties, aided by the currently beleaguered trade unions, could successfully challenge Koizumi's powerbase and cause his downfall.

Koizumi's reforms offer Japan's opposition parties a new and sustained chance to counter his government and Stephen Johnson's book is timely for those wishing to study Japan's current political position and the future of government cadres. In terms of political history, the LDP sustained power in unbroken succession between 1955 and 1993. This covered the ministries of the Second Cabinet of Ichiro Hatayama, 19 March 1955 to 18 July 1993, when the LDP lost its majority in the Lower House.

Stephen Johnson begins his study with an overview of the socio-economic, technical and ideological aspects of one-party dominance in Japan and bases his whole text on the exploration of two hypotheses. First, that political, social and economic change was as keenly felt in Japan between 1955 and 1993 as anywhere in the world, yet it did not (as elsewhere) result in an alteration of the governing regime. Secondly, that under this trio of conditions the main opposition parties of the Minshato (DSP -- Democratic Socialists), the Nihon kyosanto (JCP -- Japan Communist Party), the Nihon shakaito (JSP -- Japan Socialist Party), and the Komeito (the political wing of the Buddhist Sokagakkai -- dubbed the Clean Government Party), were presented with rich electoral opportunities that they failed to exploit.

From this point Mr Johnson then focuses on the opposition attempts at coalition and 'crisis exploitation' in the two key periods, 1970-76 and 1977-86, when five Sori-daijin, Eisaku Sato, Kakuei Tanaka, Takeo Miki, Takeo Fukuda and Masayoshi Ohira, managed, with varying skills, to outmanoeuvre the fragile alliances. Herein the author reviews the reasons for opposition failures and, quite rightly, points out that the main stumbling block was the maintenance of self-seeking internal organisation of the party leaders. Then comes a look at the successes that the opposition parties had at local level after which the book goes on to study the united campaigns of 1989-92 known as the Rengo campaigns wherein the Nihon rodo sorengakai (JTUC -- Japan Trade Union Confederation) became involved.

Stephen Johnson has brought together strains of study examining the ideological, organisational and electoral aspects of what made up the role of the opposition parties during 1955-1993, and produces an answer to the question: Why did the opposition parties fail to challenge four decades of consecutive LDP government? Electoral opportunities did exist; domestic and international crises grew; economic stagnation was rife. But the real undoing of Japan's opposition between 1955 and 1993 was that on a variety of important occasions, the parties chose to compete with themselves internally and externally rather than with the LDP. Britain's Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and nationalist parties could learn much from this volume.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Contemporary Review Company Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group