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Liberal Democratic party (LDP), Japanese political party. It began as the conservative Liberal party, which, under Shigeru Yoshida, became the dominant political force in Japan following World War II. In 1955 the Liberals merged with the newly created Japan Democratic party. Retaining control of the Japanese government for 38 years, the LDP supported Japan's alliance with the United States and fostered close links between Japanese business and government. Following charges of corruption in Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa's government, it lost its parliamentary majority in the 1993 elections, which put a coalition government in power. In spite of numerous defections by LDP members of parliament over the party's failure to enact political reform, it remained Japan's largest political party. Since 1994, when the LDP returned to power, it has been the senior partner in a series of coalition governments. Ryutaro Hashimoto became LDP leader in 1995, assuming the post of deputy prime minister in Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama's cabinet. Upon Murayama's resignation early in 1996, Hashimoto became prime minister; Keizo Obuchi succeeded Hashimoto as party leader and prime minister in 1998. When Obuchi was incapacitated by a severe stroke in 2000, Yoshiro Mori, secretary-general of the LDP, succeeded him as prime minister, but the unpopular Mori was replaced in less than a year by Junichiro Koizumi.
See also Postwar Japan under Japan.
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