ABSTRACT
The Japanese political system is democratic, has several parties, legislates through a parliament, and has a well-educated, supportive, but basically uninvolved electorate. This chapter explores the basic characteristics of the Japanese party system in order to provide a foundation for the subsequent detailed examination of the seven parties in the party system. When compared with the pre-war party system, the post-war system is significantly broader in its ideological range. Despite the existence of leftist parties, the pre-war party system was overwhelmingly conservative. Leftist parties were seldom allowed to participate fairly in elections. The Japanese party system has been described in a variety of ways— that is, as a one-party, a one-and-one-half party, a two-party, and a multiparty system. Actually, part of the explanation for this variety of labels lies more in their “snapshot” nature than in the fundamentally different interpretations of the nature of the system.
