ABSTRACT
This chapter traces changes in the voting habits of Japanese citizens over the past seven decades, focusing on this development over the four stages outlined in Chapter 1. It considers how political parties and candidates organize their campaigns, and how their strategies have changed over the decades as a more urbanized electorate has shed party affiliation to develop a more individualist political stance. A major change emphasized here is the diminishing influence of political organizations such as interest groups and labor unions that in the past had proved capable of delivering votes to the political party of their choice. Scandals resulting from interest-centered links between the business and political worlds have also eroded popular interest in politics and driven the electorate from party affiliation, while diluting its interest in politics altogether.
