A party’s seven-decade dominance raises concerns for Japan’s democracy

The party has governed Japan for all but four of the past 69 years — and its staying power is unique even compared to other parliamentary democracies, experts say.

Japan has regular, free and fair elections and is a strong democratic state where political rights and civil liberties are generally well respected, according to Freedom House, a Washington-based think tank.

On Monday, Ishiba called an election for the lower house — the most powerful chamber of parliament — on Oct. 27, a year earlier than it was due, so the public can cast their vote on his party. But the vote could also reinforce the LDP’s power.

Critics and activists say the prolonged rule of one party and the weakness of opposition parties are serious flaws that raise questions about the health of Japan’s democracy and voter participation.

“Westerners always overlook Japan when they talk about democratic backsliding,” said Koichi Nakano, a political scientist and affiliate at the Weatherhead Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University. “But Japan is also a serious case in which you can question whether it’s a real democracy at this point, in any meaningful sense.”

The LDP conducted a vote last week to choose its new leader, and therefore Japan’s new prime minister. Out of the nine candidates who ran, polls suggested Ishiba was the best positioned to convince the public that the LDP can regain their trust.

That’s because Ishiba, an outspoken lawmaker of 28 years, is known to be a contrarian within his party — publicly criticizing the elder statesmen of the LDP and his party’s stances on certain issues.

“I want the LDP to be a party that follows rules, a party that protects Japan, a party that protects the people,” Ishiba said after his victory, promising to restore voters’ trust.

But Nakano, a longtime LDP critic, said Ishiba’s victory does not negate the fact that one party has been in power for close to seven decades and the leader of the country of 125 million has been determined by that party’s members — or a fraction of 1 percent of the population.

Big tent party

The LDP came to power in 1955 with the backing of the United States, which covertly gave money to the party and its members in the 1950s and 1960s as a bulwark against the spread of communism in Asia during the Cold War. North Korea and China had both already turned communist.

Various conservative factions merged to form the LDP and thwart the rise of Japan’s Socialist party, which was sympathetic to the communist cause and, according to Washington, had ties to Moscow.

Since then, it has ballooned into a big-tent party loosely bound by a belief in strong defense and social conservatism. From its inception, the party has advocated revising the clause in Japan’s postwar pacifist constitution that formally renounces war, a legacy of Imperial Japan’s brutal past.

The LDP now encompasses a broad range of ideologies — from security hawks and right-wing nationalists to moderate conservatives. One former LDP prime minister publicly complained that women in power are “annoying,” while one of Ishiba’s challengers for the leadership was the first cabinet minister to take paternity leave.

This ability to incorporate a spectrum of views has given members space to air their disagreements rather than cause the party to splinter, said Yu Uchiyama, a political science professor at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

“They don’t break apart because of their flexibility, which is their strength,” Uchiyama said.

The LDP’s grip on power is so strong that it has a practically insurmountable advantage over opposition parties, which remain weak and divided, said Shiro Sakaiya, a Japanese politics expert at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate Schools for Law and Politics.

“There are plenty of people who are dissatisfied with the current LDP, but it is hard to find an alternative when it comes down to actual voting,” Sakaiya said.

The LDP was unseated in 1993 for one year by the opposition at the time and in 2009 to 2012 by the Democratic Party of Japan. Expectations were high, but the DPJ’s tenure was underwhelming — mainly because of economic woes and mishandling of the government’s response to the 2011 Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, which triggered a nuclear meltdown.

The Democrats’ three years in office created an impression that opposition parties are not as competent at governing as the LDP, and they have not recovered from that reputational damage, Uchiyama said.

“After ending in a mess, there is a significant distrust toward them, which still endures,” Uchiyama said. “Distrust of the LDP has not translated into trust in the opposition parties.”

Yoshihiko Noda, president of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the main successor to the DPJ, said in a statement that the opposition needs to improve its communication and coordination and to, “most importantly, agree that a change in government would be the greatest political reform.”

Voter disengagement

In a year when voters around the world are unhappy with incumbents, the Japanese are also hungry for change in leadership, polls have shown.

This summer’s gubernatorial election in Tokyo underscored that sentiment, when a little-known independent candidate, Shinji Ishimaru, waged a surprisingly strong fight against incumbent Yuriko Koike, running for her third term.

Koike prevailed, but Ishimaru’s performance — especially among younger voters attracted to his social media savvy and outsider message — indicated that the public is interested in fresh voices, analysts say.

The LDP’s one-party dominance has contributed to voter apathy, especially from younger citizens who do not feel their voices are heard or that their votes matter, said Momoko Nojo of No Youth No Japan, an NGO focused on youth engagement and the Fiftys Project, which recruits millennial and Gen Z candidates for office. The vast majority of members on the national, prefecture, city and town governments are over 50 years old, according to a tally by Nojo’s group.

“For people in their 20s, many are really struggling to make ends meet, and the reality they are facing is much more difficult than what the older generations imagine,” Nojo said.

She said that she regularly hears younger voters say that they care about progressive causes like human rights, gender equality or LGBTQ rights — but that they don’t see their interests reflected in the LDP.

The lack of diversity in the LDP — where women make up less than 10 percent of lawmakers — contributes to voter disengagement, Nojo said. Although there were two female candidates in last week’s leadership race, neither was a vocal supporter of gender equality, Nojo said, adding that true diversity in representation will “really take a long time.”

Polls show voters also disapprove of hereditary politicians, who are common in Japan.

More than half of the prime ministers in the past 30 years inherited their positions in parliament from their fathers — including Ishiba and Kishida.

The prevalence of multigenerational politicians came into focus during this month’s prime minister race when Shinjiro Koizumi, son of a popular former prime minister and fourth-generation LDP member, became one of the front-runners.

Many leaders from privileged political families are out of touch with the growing disparities in Japanese society, said Yayo Okano, political theory professor at Doshisha University in Kyoto, which has made it difficult for voters to feel their leaders understand their everyday concerns.

Okano advocates for restrictions on the number of employees and the amount of funding they can inherit from their parents’ political operations.

“There are so many hereditary politicians because it is so easy for them to win,” Okano said. “We need to create an environment where first-time candidates without the same backing have a chance at winning.”