ABSTRACT
First published in Australian Outlook, Vol. 35, No. 1, April 1981 BETWEEN 16th May and 22nd June 1980 readers of the Australian and
world press were treated to the unusual spectacle of an apparently serious political crisis in Japan. The long-standing assumption of most Western foreign policymakers that stable conservative government was safely assured in the world’s third largest economy was suddenly placed in question. Although the crisis ended with a spectacular renewal of the conservative mandate in general elections, it brought to the surface for all to see some of the underlying tensions which are more usually masked by the outward appearance of consensus in Japanese political decision-making.
