ABSTRACT

First published in Ian Neary (ed.), Leaders and Leadership in Japan Richmond, Japan Library, 1996

We have swallowed the Socialists and we have them in our stomach. All that remains is for the gastric juices to digest them. 1

THESE REMARKS attributed to the former Prime Minister. Takeshita Noboru, suggest a cunning plot to restore the essence of LDP hegemony, which had been so rudely snatched away with the formation of the Hosokawa Government in August 1993. According to this hypothesis, the reform ambitions initiated by the Hosokawa coalition government (August 1993-April 1994) are close to foundering with the return of the LDP to power, in a coalition with the Socialists, at the end of June. Another way of putting the same thing is to say that Ozawa has been defeated by Takeshita: that the ambitious reformer who wanted to remake the system of politics has been defeated by the old-style politician who wishes to restore the status quo.