Aurelia, as usual, leaves few stones unturned...

>>...the general nature of political parties in Japan
as conglomerations of individual politicians pushing their own policy barrows resulting in poor party discipline...<<

This must be in large part the result of the need to pay for their own political barrows, Communists and, presumably to a lesser extent, Komeito being exceptions to the rule. I imagine that the situation is very different in the UK, where the party essentially tells the candidates where to stand for election, or Germany and other countries that have strict proportional election systems.