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Japan Party History and Basic Principles
The LDP has a complex genealogy. Its roots can be
traced to the
groups established by Itagaki Taisuke and Okuma Shigenobu
in the
1880s
(see The Development of Representative Government
, ch. 1). It
attained its present form in November 1955, when the
conservative
Liberal Party (Jiyuto) and the Japan Democratic Party
(Nihon
Minshuto) united in response to the threat posed by a
unified Japan
Socialist Party, which had been established the month
before. The
union of the Liberal Party and the Japan Democratic Party
has often
been described as a "shotgun marriage." Both had strong
leaders and
had previously competed with each other. The Japan
Democratic
Party, which had been established only a year before, in
November
1954, was itself a coalition of different groups in which
farmers
were prominent. The result of the new amalgamation was a
large
party that represented a broad spectrum of interests but
had
minimal organization compared with the socialist and other
leftist
parties. In 1976, in the wake of the Lockheed bribery
scandal, a
handful of younger LDP Diet members broke away and
established
their own party, the New Liberal Club (Shin Jiyu Kurabu).
A decade
later, however, it was reabsorbed by the LDP.
Unlike the leftist parties, the LDP did not espouse a
welldefined ideology or political philosophy. Its members held
a
variety of positions that could be broadly defined as
being to the
right of the opposition parties, yet more moderate than
those of
Japan's numerous rightist splinter groups
(see Political Extremists
, this ch.). The LDP traditionally identified
itself with
a number of general goals: rapid, export-based economic
growth;
close cooperation with the United States in foreign and
defense
policies; and several newer issues, such as administrative
reform.
Administrative reform encompassed several themes:
simplification
and streamlining of government bureaucracy; privatization
of stateowned enterprises; and adoption of measures, including tax
reform,
needed to prepare for the strain on the economy posed by
an aging
society. Other priorities in the early 1990s included
promoting a
more active and positive role for Japan in the rapidly
developing
Asia-Pacific region, internationalizing Japan's economy by
liberalizing and promoting domestic demand, creating a
hightechnology information society, and promoting scientific
research.
A business-inspired commitment to free enterprise was
tempered by
the insistence of important small business and
agricultural
constituencies on some form of protectionism.
Data as of January 1994
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