JAPAN

Japan

Japan

Japan after 1945 had a very splintered party system, especially on the left. Whereas the Liberal Party united more or less all nonsocialist groups within the Japanese society, neither the Socialist Party nor the Communist Party could ever lead the country. Indeed, for many years from the 1970s to the 1990s, the Liberal Party had an absolute majority in both houses, whereby any left opposition was marginalized (Karel, 2007). The Socialist Party grasped the feeling of participating in government on a junior partner level several times but was weakened by its internal feuds and rivalries. The Communist Party experienced rifts between ...