The End of Japan's "Non-Decision" Politics

Abstract

Japanese politics is in total confusion, and has been since the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost power in July 1993 after 38 years of stable rule. Within a year, the country had seen four prime ministers, and it is widely believed that the current government will fall sooner rather than later. Morihiro Hosokawa, who came into power with both political and economic reforms as his top agenda, enjoyed unusually strong popular support. After four decades of LDP rule, filled with scandal and corruption, the Japanese public had become quite cynical about politics, but the advent of Hosokawa's new reform government had raised expectations that long-overdue and serious changes would finally be made. Yet, despite his enormous popularity and high public expectations, the Hosokawa government collapsed after only eight months. The irony is that the selfproclaimed reformer was forced to resign because of financial improprieties; this, in turn, has deepened popular cynicism about Japanese politics. A successor government was difficult to form. After long and laborious negotiations, the coalition parties worked out a consensus on key policies. The new Hata government, however, was even more fragile than its predecessor, as the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) bolted from the coalition despite a thorough policy discussion before its formation. The Socialists' dissatisfaction did not stem from differences over policy but simply from factional strife within the coalition. The minority government did not last long. Shortly after the Diet passed the budget bill, the LDP, not surprisingly, tried to regain power. The surprise came when the Socialists and the Liberal Democrats, who had been arch-rivals in postwar Japanese politics, now agreed to form a