The 1955 System in Japan and Its Subsequent Development

Abstract

The 1955 System In October 1955 the right and left wings of the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) merged, and in the following month the two conservative parties, the Democratic Party and the Liberal Party, also merged to form the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). This marked the founding of the 1955 system. The rationale for the mergers was above all the desire for political power and control of the government. The Socialist Party, splintered over the 1951 San Francisco peace treaty, had increased its Diet strength in the successive elections of 1952, 1953, and 1955, and the advance of the left wing was particularly noteworthy. In the spring 1955 election, both wings campaigned on a platform promising a merger in the near future. The Diet strength of the conservatives, on the other hand, kept shrinking in election after election, and the Democratic Party that had organized the Hatoyama cabinet fell far short of a majority in 1955. The conservatives resolved to merge in order to build a stable conservative government and in response to the Socialists' merger. The mergers within the two camps, however, were also brought about by strong external pressures. Sohyo, the labor federation created by the occupation authority, had turned sharply left and radical with the coming of the Korean War; at that time it was directing a large-scale labor campaign against rationalization in many places. Without Sohyo's total endorsement, the Socialist left wing could not have expanded as it did. Without its negative pressure, the JSP would not have come together again.