Factions in the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)

The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (自由民主党 Jiyū-Minshutō) is the ruling party of Japan, with Party President Yoshihide Suga being the Prime Minister of Japan. The Liberal Democratic Party (as well as the Democratic Party of Japan, the main opposition party) is characterized by factionalism, where factions are sub-groups within a larger organisation.[1] While factions characterize other political parties in Pacific Asia, Japanese factionalism is distinguished by its stability and institutionalization.[2] Since the genesis of the Liberal Democratic Party in 1955, factions have existed, but they have changed over time. Despite this change, factions in the party today can be traced back to their 1955 roots, a testament to the stability and institutionalized nature of Liberal Democratic Party factions.[3]

Faction leaders offer their followers services without which the followers would find it difficult, if not impossible, to survive politically. Leaders provide funds for the day-to-day operation of Diet members' offices and staff as well as financial support during expensive election campaigns. The operating allowances provided by the government are inadequate, even after the introduction of public funding in 1994. The leader also introduces his followers to influential bureaucrats and business people, which make it much easier for the followers to satisfy their constituents' demands.

Historical factions

Historically, the most powerful and aggressive faction leader in the LDP was Kakuei Tanaka, whose Mokuyo Club factions dual-house strength in the early 1980s exceeded 110. His followers remained loyal despite the fact that he had been convicted of receiving ¥500 million (nearly US$4 million) in bribes from Lockheed (the Lockheed scandal) to facilitate the purchase of its passenger aircraft by All Nippon Airways and that he had formally withdrawn from the LDP. Tanaka and his most bitter factional rival, Takeo Fukuda, were a study in contrasts. Tanaka was a roughhewn wheeler-dealer with a primary school education who had made a fortune in the construction industry; Fukuda was an elite product of the University of Tokyo Law Faculty and a career bureaucrat.

In the face of Fukuda's strong opposition, Tanaka engineered the selections of prime ministers Masayoshi Ōhira (1978–80) and Zenkō Suzuki (1980–82). The accession of Yasuhiro Nakasone to the prime ministership in 1982 would also not have occurred without Tanaka's support. As a result, Nakasone, at that time a politically weak figure, was nicknamed "Tanakasone". But Tanaka's faction was dealt a grave blow when one of his subordinates, Noboru Takeshita, decided to form a breakaway group.

The LDP faction system was closely fitted to the House of Representatives' medium-sized, multiple-member election districts. The party usually ran more than one candidate in each of these constituencies to maintain its lower house majority, and these candidates were from different factions. During an election campaign, the LDP, in a real sense, ran not only against the opposition but also against itself. In fact, intraparty competition within one election district was often more bitter than interparty competition, with two or more LDP candidates vying for the same block of conservative votes. For example, in the House of Representatives election of February 18, 1990, three LDP and three opposition candidates competed for five seats in a southwestern prefecture. Two of the LDP candidates publicly expressed bitterness over the entry of the third, a son of the prefectural governor. Local television showed supporters of one of the LDP candidates cheering loudly when the governor's son was edged out for the fifth seat by a Komeito candidate.

List of major historical factions

The LDP's factions can loosely be grouped into two main currents. They developed in the years following the "conservative merger" (hoshu gōdō) of 1955 when Shigeru Yoshida's Liberal Party and Ichirō Hatoyama's Japan Democratic Party united to form the LDP. Factions of former Liberals are called hoshu honryū ("conservative mainstream") while the factions of former Democrats hoshu bōryū ("conservative anti-mainstream"). Present-day factions and leaders (as of January 2010) in bold.

  • Ex-Liberals ("conservative mainstream")
    • "Yoshida school" (Yoshida gakkō) centered around ex-bureaucrats loyal to Yoshida
      • Kōchikai (Ikeda → Maeo → Ōhira → Suzuki → Miyazawa → Katō faction), split following the "Katō rebellion" (Katō no ran) against party president Yoshirō Mori in 2000
        • Kōchikai (Katō → Ozato → Tanigaki faction) of Katō loyalists, remerged into the other Kōchikai in 2008
        • Kōchikai (Horiuchi → Niwa-Koga → Koga faction), voted against Katō's no-confidence motion in 2000, now reunited under Koga
        • Taiyūkai (Kōno faction) → Ikōkai (Asō faction), formed by supporters of a second term for Yōhei Kōno in the LDP presidential election of 1995 from the Miyazawa faction
      • Mokuyō Kenkyūkai → Shūzankai → Mokuyō Club → Keiseikai → Heisei Kenkyūkai (Satō → Tanaka → Takeshita → Obuchi → Hashimoto → Tsushima → Nukaga faction)
        • Shūzan Club (Hori faction), merged into the anti-mainstream's Fukuda faction
        • Kaikaku Forum 21 (Hata faction), split off the Takeshita faction in 1992 following the Sagawa Express scandal, voted with the opposition in a no-confidence motion against Kiichi Miyazawa in 1993 and subsequently left the LDP to form the Japan Renewal Party making the LDP lose its lower house majority ahead of the 1993 general election
      • Suiyōkai (Ogata → Ishii faction)
    • Hatoyama supporters
      • Hakuseikai (Ōno faction), split into the Murakami → Mizuta faction and the Funada faction, both groups disappeared
  • Ex-Democrats ("conservative anti-mainstream")
    • Hatoyama supporters
      • Tōkakai → Tōfū Ishin Renmei (Kishi faction) → Yōkakai → Seiwakai → Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai (Fukuda → Abe → Mitsuzuka → Mori → Machimura → Hosoda faction)
        • Aiseikai (Fujiyama faction), formed to support Fujiyama's (unsuccessful) runs in the LDP presidential elections of the 1960s
        • Kōyū Club (Kawashima → Shiina), split off from the Kishi faction in 1962, dissolved after Shiina's resignation
      • Shunjūkai (Kōno faction) → Shinsei Dōshikai → Seisaku Kagaku Kenkyūjo (Nakasone → Watanabe faction), without a clear leader following Watanabe's death in 1995, merged with the Kamei group after the formation of Taku Yamasaki's independent faction in 1998
        • Shunjūkai (Kōno → Mori → Sonoda faction), merged into the Fukuda faction after Sonoda had died in 1984
        • Kinmirai Seiji Kenkyūkai (Yamasaki faction)
        • Shisuikai (Murakami → Etō → Kamei → Ibuki faction), formed by the remaining Ex-Watanabe faction members and a breakaway group from the Mitsuzuka faction led by Kamei
      • Kayōkai (Ishibashi faction) → Futsukakai (Ishida faction), merged into the Miki faction in 1971
    • former Kaishintō (Progressive Party)
      • Seisaku Kondankai (Miki-Matsumura faction) → Banchō Seisaku Kenkyūjo (Miki faction) → Shin-seisaku Kenkyūkai (Kōmoto faction) → Banchō Seisaku Kenkyūjo (Kōmura faction)
  • Others
    • Jiyū Kakushin Dōmei (Nakagawa → Ishihara faction), merged into the Fukuda faction
    • Atarashii Nami (Nikai faction), faction of former members of the New Conservative Party, merged into the Ibuki faction in 2009

Currently-existing factions

There are currently five major factions, two minor factions, and one new faction in the LDP. While most factions have official titles, in the Japanese media they are usually referred to by the names of their current leaders.[4] From most to least powerful, they are:

Seiwa Political-analysis Council (清和政策研究会 Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai)

Led by ex-Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda. Founded by Takeo Fukuda in 1962. It is a pro-classical economics, nationalist (it includes many Japanese Neoconservatives) and conservative faction. Former Prime Minister and Party President Shinzō Abe belonged to this faction.[5] His deceased father Shintaro Abe was an ex-leader of this faction (1986–1991). Ex-Prime Ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Yoshirō Mori also formerly led the faction. As of 2004 it has overtaken the Hashimoto faction in the more powerful Lower House, and after the 2007 Councilor's election, the Seiwa Political-analysis Council has become the largest political faction in the party.

  • Supported by Japan Business Federation, established authoritarian bureaucracy, Japan War-Bereaved Families Association.
  • This faction promotes decreasing taxes for high income taxpayers, decreasing taxes for large companies, depending on the US for national defense issues, visits to Yasukuni Shrine in order to garner support from Nationalist voters without any special interest payments, returning the constitution to support the political system of the pre-World War II era, decreasing road/railway construction, decreasing medical care, eliminating overtime pay for white-collar workers, changing permanent employment to temporary employment, eliminating labor unions, free trade for car exports, removing protection for small farmers, privatization of Japan Post and the layoff of Japan Post workers.
  • 1955 GHQ changed their policy from anti-fascist to anti-communist, and released Nobusuke Kishi (Class A war criminals, a member of Hideki Tōjō's Militarist Cabinet, father-in-law of Shintarō Abe and grandfather of Shinzō Abe) from Sugamo Prison. Kishi founded the Japan Democratic Party (No relation to the current JDP)
  • The faction was suppressed by Heisei Seisaku Kenkyukai and Kochikai from 1960 to 1990 but because of a failure of the Heisei Seisaku Kenkyukai and Kochikai leadership it led the LDP from 2002 to 2008, mainly under Junichirō Koizumi.
  • Founded by Nobusuke Kishi. Succeeded by Takeo Fukuda, Junichirō Koizumi, Shinzō Abe, Yasuo Fukuda.

Heisei Research Council (平成研究会 Heisei Kenkyūkai)

The current chairman is Fukushiro Nukaga since September 2009. Formerly led by Ex-PM Ryutaro Hashimoto. The Nukaga faction was preceded by the Takeshita Faction of Noboru Takeshita. The faction's de facto leader is now Upper House member Mikio Aoki until he retired in 2010. It is a Keynesian, Right-liberal and pro-China faction. It has strong influence on bureaucrats. Ex-PM Hashimoto and the entire faction were hit with a scandal where the faction had apparently taken money from the Japan Dental Association. Hashimoto resigned as chairman of the faction in 2004 and retired from politics the following year. Possible replacements included Kosuke Hori, Fumio Kyuma, Takao Fujii, and Fukushiro Nukaga. It is split with members who support Mr. Koizumi and those who do not. There are more supporting Mr. Koizumi. Because it has been the largest in numbers, the accusation of influence peddling and pork-barrel politics is rife. It is a descendant of the Tanaka faction.

Kōchikai (宏池会)

The current chairman is Makoto Koga. Mitsuo Horiuchi was co-leader until he temporarily left the faction in October 2006. This group was under the leadership of Koichi Kato until a split in 2001. It is moderate on internal and foreign affairs but more conservative and critical to Mr. Koizumi but still moderately nationalist, and more successful than the section led by Kato. This faction historically has been the most prestigious faction, with many of its members drawn from the upper-ranks of the elite bureaucracy.

  • Supported by the established Liberal party of the bureaucracy, white-collar workers, doctors, small merchants and small factory people.
  • This faction led economic development from 1960 to 1988. They promote international cooperation with China and Korea, a Government bond/Consumption Tax for National Medical care and National Banks which financially support small firms, as well as Free trade Policy.
  • Founded by diplomat Shigeru Yoshida. Succeeded by Hayato Ikeda, Kiichi Miyazawa, Sadakazu Tanigaki, Makoto Koga.

Shisuikai (志帥会)

Led by Bunmei Ibuki. It is considered by many to be the most right-wing grouping among the major factions, though it is Keynesian and Right liberal in general and pro-International cooperation. This faction has effectively been dissolved since Kamei and other members left the party to establish the People's New Party in opposition to the postal privatisation bills.

Kinmirai Seiji Kenkyūkai (近未来政治研究会)

Led by Taku Yamasaki. 'Kinmirai Seiji Kenkyūkai' and 'Shisuikai' are close.

Ikōkai (為公会)

Formerly led by Yōhei Kōno, who is now Speaker of the House of Representatives. Once part of the former Katō faction, though this group split off during the mid-1990s. It is more critical to Koizumi and more reformist and pro-Chinese than the Machimura faction’s classical economics conservative nationalists. It is now known as the Former Kono Faction because the resignation of the faction chief and the inability of the faction to decide on a new leader.

Banchō Seisaku Kenkyūjo (番町政策研究所)

Led by Masahiko Komura. 'Banchō Seisaku Kenkyūjo' and 'Ikōkai' are close.

Suigetsukai (水月会)

A new faction.

References
  1. "the definition of faction". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2017-12-23.
  2. Hoffman, Steven (1981). "Faction Behavior and Cultural Codes: India and Japan". The Journal of Asian Studies. 40 (2): 231–254. doi:10.2307/2054863. JSTOR 2054863.
  3. "B.Jo". B.Jo. Retrieved 2017-12-23.
  4. There are currently factions in the LDP. (in Japanese)
  5. list of former prime ministers with 'Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai' background, from the group's website (in Japanese)
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