Japan's Postwar Party Politics

by Masaru Kohno

Overview

In this sophisticated theoretical work, Masaru Kohno presents a systematic reexamination of the evolution of party politics in Japan since the end of the second World War. Because of the long one-party dominance by the Liberal Democratic Party, Japan's parliamentary democracy has often been viewed as unique in the developed world, and most of the existing studies of Japanese party politics have addressed such determinants as its political culture, historical background, and socio-ideological cleavages. According to the author, these explanations do not adequately account for some of the most important changes that took place in Japanese party politics during the postwar period.


This study advances an alternative set of interpretations based on a microanalytic approach that highlights the incentive and bargaining power of individual political actors, and their competitive and strategic behavior under existing institutional constraints. According to Kohno, the evolution of political life in postwar Japan depends on the same factors that are acknowledged to be at work in other industrialized nations. He reveals, through detailed case studies of government formation processes and statistical examinations of candidate nomination patterns, that the microanalytic approach can establish forward-looking and internally consistent interpretations of the postwar development of Japanese party politics. Because Japan has usually been treated as a country of unique cultural, historical, and societal characteristics, the analyses of this study point to the broader applicability of the microanalytic approach in the field of comparative politics, especially for the exploration of party competition in advanced industrial democracies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691221618
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	11/10/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	172
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Masaru Kohno is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. He is currently a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

Table of Contents

	List of Figures
	List of Tables
	Acknowledgments
1	Introduction	3
2	Questioning Conventional Approaches	15
3	The Politics of Electoral Reform, 1945-1947	30
4	Coalition Building under the Pre-1955 Multiparty System	49
5	The Creation of the Liberal Democratic Party in 1955	68
6	The Evolution of the LDP's Intraparty Politics	91
7	Post-1955 Changes in the Japanese Party System	116
8	The Political Change in 1993	135
9	Conclusion	156
	Bibliography	159
	Subject Index	167
	Author Index	171

What People are Saying About This

Reed

This is a major contribution to the field. Its application of rational choice approaches to Japanese politics raises the level of discussion. The author avoids many of the pitfalls of the rational choice approach and provides a significant improvement over previous analyses. The book is also the best single source in English on the history of the early postwar period and the details of internal party politics in Japan.
— Steven R. Reed, Chuo University (Tokyo)

From the Publisher

"This is a major contribution to the field. Its application of rational choice approaches to Japanese politics raises the level of discussion. The author avoids many of the pitfalls of the rational choice approach and provides a significant improvement over previous analyses. The book is also the best single source in English on the history of the early postwar period and the details of internal party politics in Japan."—Steven R. Reed, Chuo University (Tokyo)

"One of the most interesting and convincing rational-choice treatments I have read on any subject. Kohno's work is appropriately embedded in history yet it has exquisite analyses of strategies pursued by parties, factions, and individual politicians. It rates high marks for accessibility, cogency, clarity, and parsimony."—David R. Mayhew, Yale University

Mayhew

One of the most interesting and convincing rational-choice treatments I have read on any subject. Kohno's work is appropriately embedded in history yet it has exquisite analyses of strategies pursued by parties, factions, and individual politicians. It rates high marks for accessibility, cogency, clarity, and parsimony.
— David R. Mayhew, Yale University

Editorial Reviews

"Kohno has produced a cogent microanalysis of post-1945 party politics in Japan. . . . An informative re-creation of the political environment in which party leaders interacted and significant insight into the decision-making process that logically followed."

Choice

"Kohno's approach generates answers to questions that conventional interpretations fail to provide. . . . Unlike so many other studies that implicitly or explicitly assume that the Japanese case is unique, the study offers fertile grounds for comparison 'with political parties and competitive party systems in other advanced countries.'"

Japan Quarterly

"This is a major contribution to the field. Its application of rational choice approaches to Japanese politics raises the level of discussion. The author avoids many of the pitfalls of the rational choice approach and provides a significant improvement over previous analyses. The book is also the best single source in English on the history of the early postwar period and the details of internal party politics in Japan."—Steven R. Reed, Chuo University (Tokyo)

From the Publisher