ABSTRACT
The type of legislation that Kakuei Tanaka proposed as a junior MP focused on building the infrastructure which was to prove essential to Japan’s postwar economic miracle. In identifying the need for such spending, Tanaka cultivated relationships with bureaucrats who were certainly interventionist and in some cases clearly socialist in their orientation. The route taken by Tanaka in aligning himself with Yoshida, who dominated Japanese politics for most of the first postwar decade, is difficult to determine precisely. Tanaka gained politically from the benefits which he began to channel to his constituents and personally as a result of shrewd corporate and land deals through his burgeoning network of companies. Public works projects, such as roads, were also a source of patronage, and Tanaka used his patronage to build one of the strongest constituency groups in Japan – a model for conservatives throughout the country.
