ABSTRACT
The human network of local community leaders is the most important support base for the LDP. The party’s local assembly members form the party’s machinery that draws on this, as well as the personal support organisations of national and local politicians. In this respect, the LDP is in an overwhelming superior position to the parties of opposition, as can be seen in their numbers of local assembly members. Due to the neoliberal reforms of the Koizumi government, the local organisation of the LDP was hit hard and this was one of the reasons why the party lost power. The LDP today has reaffirmed the significance of its local organisation. However, there have been no change in the deteriorating trend seen in the personal support organisations of national and local politicians, declining party membership and the reduction of seat numbers in city, town and village assemblies. The control that national politicians had exercised over their local assembly peers also seems to be on the wane.
