ABSTRACT

BY COMPARISON with many countries, Japan can boast a rich history of political parties. What may be called ‘parties’ were first formed during the 1870s, shortly after the opening of the country to the outside world following two and a half centuries of virtual isolation. Between the 1870s and the 1980s there is a continuous history of parties and of party competition, except for the period between 1940 and 1945, when the various parties were forced into a single officially sponsored organization. A recent count of political parties over the whole period puts the total number at more than 160. 1 These range from the ephemeral followings of particular leaders right up to the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) which has formed the government of Japan without interruption since 1955.