Part three.
In light of the upcoming national
election, I thought I'd do something topical and give a bit of a
primer on the Japanese political situation, for those who may be
interested. Note that I have little formal training and base my
knowledge in having grown up in city hall, a casual interest in
politics (though I am more interested in the parties and
personalities than The Issues), and the fact that I happen to live in
Japan. If you want somebody who knows what the hell he's talking
about, I recommend Our Man in Abiko. Anyway, I'll do my best.
This will be a relatively beefy
three-part series. In this post I will introduce the facts of
political life in Japan, as I understand them. The next part will
focus on the events of the last few years that have lead us to where
we're at right now, and finally I'll run over the major players who
will be competing on December 16th.
Japanese politics is characterized
chiefly by the dominance of the Jimintou or Liberal Democratic Party,
which is conservative, and the competing Minshutou or Democratic
Party of Japan, which is also pretty conservative. Usually the
Jimintou forms the government while the Minshutou comprises the
opposition, although the roles have been reversed since 2009. Like
many parliamentary legislatures, Japan also features a pleasant
dappling of fringe parties, although it has an advantage over most in
terms of sheer number and stupidity.
The Jimintou won an impressive majority
in the Lower House elections of 1955 and, while they were never
monipotent or anything, immediately took it in a vicegrip. (Hi there,
Americans! The Lower House produces laws, the Prime Minister, etc.
Upper House representatives draw enormous salaries while trying to
look contemplative.) Ten years on from World War II, this was still a
highly tumultuous period in which a steady guiding hand was always
going to prove more popular than any of the radical progressives who
were trying to construct an entirely new country while they had the
chance. The Jimintou came packaged with the promise of stability and
mortar, became too big to topple, and remained in power for the next
four decades.
As the post-war migration into more
metropolitan areas wore on, the country's largest population centres
became eddies of youthful ideals, causing the Jimintou's influence to
slip there. Their local focus also became increasingly ineffective as
individuals no longer living in their hometowns grew more concerned
with issues at the national level. However, the smaller parties
wasted their energy largely fighting for scraps amongst themselves,
and were never able to form a coherent front against their
ideological opponents. In fact, they actually splintered into even
smaller and more inconsequential parties, so that even as the
Jimintou gradually started losing seats it never actually got any
weaker. You could call it undemocratic, but after all they did win
fair and square, over and over again, and the consistency afforded
allowed them to get an awful lot of work done.
It all became too much to bear in the
general election of 1993, when general discontent coupled with
several simultaneous scandals (though it can be said that the
Japanese have grown basically accustomed to government corruption,
from time to time they tire of it.) A massive coalition of leftovers
managed to form the government, but this ended predictably: Unable to
maintain such an intricate trapeze for very long, it collapsed eleven
months later. The Jimintou immediately reclaimed its rightful place
in the world and kept at it until 2009, when it dropped from 303
seats to 119, while the Minshutou soared from 110 to 308.
The fluidity of Japanese politics makes
party histories very difficult to grasp. Japanese politicians form,
break apart and reform new human-blobs like a crowd of graduates
taking their final pictures together. In short, somebody is forming a
brand-new party all the damn time, basically whenever they have
misgivings with contemporary policy, want to make a power grab or
simply realise that they'd rather be king of a hovel than servant in
a mansion. The new party is usually almost identical in feel and
substance to the one it sprang from. This makes the fringe parties a
little complicated, but I'll try to at least present them as they are
today.
Oddly enough, while the two primary
parties are largely conservative – though the Jimintou has its
progressive moments, and the Minshutou is a little more centrist –
the first-place alternative is actually even more violently so. The
Kokumin no Seikatsu ga Daiichi (People's Life First, stupidly) is a
sort of radical nationalist type deal. Japanese political parties are
highly factional, somewhat lacking in the party discipline we see in
Western parliaments, which is part of the reason why representatives
are so quick to jump ship, since they already oppose half their own
party's policies anyway. In this case, one group of diehards within
the Minshutou departed, scandalized, when the government of Noda
Yoshihiko decided to increase the consumption tax. They also detest
nuclear power, and you kind of have to admit that they may have a
point there.
In 2009 the Shin Koumeitou (New
Koumeitou) lost some serious ground percentage-wise but experienced
little change in practical terms, as they merely fell from 31 to 21.
Built on a foundation of Buddhist pacifism, their rhetoric holds that
human life should be the starting point of all political
consideration (strangely, they are unaffiliated with the PLF).
Accordingly, they call for nuclear anti-proliferation, bureaucratic
decentralization, and the pursuit of peaceful solutions to foreign
affairs issues.
Next in line is Minna no Tou, which is
officially “Your Party” in English but would be more accurately
called “Everyone's Party.” What the hell that even means is
unclear. It was formed for the 2009 election, pushing electoral
reform, small government, and neoliberalism. Oh, and they too aren't
so hot on the whole nuclear thing, so you may be sensing a pattern
here.
Finally we have the Socialist and
Communist parties, two incredibly bland lefty jamborees doing their
usual lefty stuff. The Social Democratic Party is made from the
remnants of the Japan Socialist Party, the running second fiddle
throughout the 1955 system. Their very own Fukushima Mizuho is the
only female party leader, and frankly I'm surprised they have that
many. The Communist Party, in addition to communism, also believes
that Japan needs to start cutting ties with the United States,
putting it at odds with the ruling parties and also reality. Neither
party is a fan of Noda.
So we have a somewhat conservative
government, a strongly conservative opposition, a dappling of silly
fringe parties, splinter factions that form yet more parties at the
drop of a hat, Prime Ministerial musical chairs, and a bunch of
leaders who compete in absurdity. Isn't politics fun?!
*
I think you will have probably noticed
that a running theme with Japanese fringe parties is that they all
have ridiculous names. The following parties all hold five seats or
fewer and are therefore not really worth getting into (and, in fact,
are not even legally considered parties), but as a little bonus, here
are some of the funniest offenders:
Genzei Nippon, “Tax Cuts Japan” (at
least you know what you're getting!)
Okinawa Shakai Taishuutou, the “Okinawa
Socialist Masses Party” (awfully militant!)
Taiyou no Tou, the “Sunrise Party”
Midori no Kaze, “Green Wind”
Shintou Kaikaku, known in English by
the less than literal title of the “Renaissance Party”
And finally, Han-TPP – Datsu-Genpatsu
– Shouhizei Zouzei Touketsu wo Jitsugen suru Tou, the “Anti-TPP,
Anti-Nuclear, Consumption Tax Hike Freeze Realisation Party”
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