DPJ election strategy: the dilemma of landslide victory

The DPJ contested elections through two fundamentally distinct, and in many ways inconsistent, electoral strategies. Party members who had belonged to the DPJ since its inception sought to win elections by appealing broadly to the average Japanese voter with a platform of open, reformist politics. Another group within the party, centered around Ichirō Ozawa, developed a pragmatic, meticulous election strategy that sought to capture the LDP’s traditional support base-rural voters and concentrated interest groups-with promises of government largesse.