Dear SSJ Forum Subscribers:

To help make research on Japanese electoral politics more widely available in the wake of the latest elections, Social Science Japan Journal in cooperation with our publisher Oxford University Press have decided to provide Open Access to the following papers for a limited time. Abstracts and links are provided below.

Christian Winkler, "Right On? The LDP's Drift to the Right and the Persistence of Particularism"
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyx021
Abstract: Since Prime Minister Abe's return to power in 2012, there has been an ongoing discussion about whether and if so to what extent the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) had drifted to the 'right'. This article argues that it is important to distinguish between conservative and neoliberal policy appeals, as those two ideologies often clash with each other, despite being united under the casual 'right' banner. Using a newly coded, comprehensive database of LDP election platforms dating back to the 1950s, the analysis presented here shows that electoral reform alone cannot explain the development of these policy appeals since the 1990s. By comparing the LDP to its center-right counterparts in Western countries, I show that external shocks such as the Oil Crisis and the end of the Cold War have influenced neoliberal and conservative policy pledges in Japan and elsewhere. While these trends are similar, the LDP has placed a comparatively lower priority on conservative, and even more so neoliberal policy appeals. The article argues that this is due to the continued relevance of particularistic policy appeals, which are less important in the US, Germany or Great Britain.

Chao-Chi Lin and Wan-Ying Yang, "Electoral Rules, Nomination Strategies, and Women's Representation in Japan and Taiwan"
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyab027
Abstract: Japan and Taiwan conducted similar electoral reforms in 1994 and 2005. Following the transition from the single nontransferable vote (SNTV) to the mixed-member majoritarian (MMM), at the district level, both countries' numbers of female representatives have increased, contrary to expectations. What, then, explains the increase in Japan's and Taiwan's women's representation at the district level? We argue that electoral systems can only partly explain the variation in female representation and that the critical factor explaining women's representation is not the women's electability, but the earlier stage of nomination. This article examines continuity and change in the candidate selection methods of major parties in Japan and Taiwan and identifies factors that may affect the likelihood of women becoming candidates. Although major parties have adopted different nomination strategies following the reforms, the increase in female representatives has been associated with the centralized process, and whether a woman is an incumbent or not is key to her nomination. Moreover, path dependence matters, and given that Taiwan had more female incumbent representatives than Japan under the SNTV, this might explain the differences in the starting point for female representation between Taiwan and Japan when both switched to the MMM and there was a persistent gap between the two countries.

Fumi Ikeda, "Why Does Japan's Social Democratic Party Survive? An Organizational Perspective"
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyx019
Abstract: This article asks what explains the survival of small parties by analyzing the survival of the Social Democratic Party of Japan (SDP). Many new parties were founded in the early 1990s but few have survived. The SDP is thus an outlier case. The SDP is a successor to the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) but many members of the JSP joined the new center-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in 1996. The DPJ prospered but the SDP has faded into electoral insignificance, barely maintaining enough support to qualify as a political party under Japanese law. How and why does the SDP survive despite its dismal performance in elections? I argue that the continuing support of the All Japan Prefectural and Municipal Workers Union (hereafter, Jichiro) has played a significant role in the SDP's survival. Jichiro officially decided to support the DPJ but some prefectural branches continued to support the SDP. The SDP case confirms that societal organizations have played a significant role more than charismatic leadership or policy distinctiveness for small party survival. The SDP case also indicates that societal organizations may hinder cooperation with other parties and might undermine unified opposition building against the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Steven Reed, "Patronage and Predominance: How the LDP Maintains Its Hold on Power"
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyab033
Abstract: The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) held power from 1955 until 1993. How did it manage to do so? In 1994 a political reform resulted in competitive elections but, starting in 2012, the LDP regained its predominant position, winning three consecutive landslide victories. How did it manage to do this even after the reform? In this paper I argue that a system of 'party-organization patronage', in which the patron is the LDP and the client is an interest group organization, played a significant role in maintaining LDP predominance in both periods. I further argue that the key to explaining changes in the predominant party system is the LDP's monopoly on access to the public policy making process. When this monopoly faltered, interest group organizations began to put a foot in both camps or even defected to an opposition party but once the LDP's monopoly was re-established interest groups returned to the LDP fold. In both cases, predominance was established in two steps. First, fortuitous events gave the LDP an overwhelming parliamentary majority and a monopoly on access to policy making. Second, the LDP granted organizations access to policy making in exchange for their votes which helped it maintain its monopoly.


Dr. Meredith Shaw
Managing Editor, Social Science Japan Journal
University of Tokyo