ABSTRACT
Certain salient features of Japanese politics have been covered in the preceding chapters. Three decades of single-party rule by the Liberal Democratic Party was attributed to division and weakness among its opposition parties and the LDP’s factions that have provided the party with enough flexibility to adapt and adjust itself to Japan’s rapidly changing socio-economic environment. The governing party also has been able to maximize its ability to win seats in both chambers of the National Assembly by organizing its strength within the framework of the rules governing elections. One of its advantages has been that, despite its being a confederation of factions, it has been able to control the endorsement of candidates better than the opposition parties whose joint candidate strategy has not fully solved the dilemma that they have faced in endorsing their own candidates, by virtue of being separate entities.
