ABSTRACT
The voters were finally ready to end the domination of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the late 1980s, when political scandals, unpopular policies, and an inability to enact reform undermined the effectiveness of government. In 1993, following a number of defections, the LDP lost control of the lower house to a coalition of opposition parties led by the Japan New Party (JNP). The ability of the Liberal Democrats to hang on to power has been due not only to their own political skills but to the persistent inability of opposition parties to mount an effective challenge. Public employees are precluded by law from engaging in electoral politics but they manage to get around the regulations. Coverage of political scandals often appears first in these publications before being picked up by the mainstream press. The extreme form of protest is terrorism, and Japan boasts some of the world's most ruthless practitioners of this form of political action.
