A Lack of Ideology: Local Tokyo elections

From 1955 to 1993, one party, the LDP, maintained a plurality in Japanese politics. The principal minority party, the Japan Socialist Party, would form a coalition of opposition with other parties including the Clean Government Party and the JCP. During this period, there was a degree of ideology: the LDP favored economic growth and development, business and a gradual growth of the military whereas the opposition parties opposed military growth and stood for "the little guy" wherever possible.

But in the summer of 1993 this situation changed as various factions within the LDP broke off to form their own parties, including the New Frontier Party and the Democratic Party of Japan. How these parties differed from the LDP was never quite clear; the parties seemed to be formed more around personality than ideology. Furthermore, the 1993 government was a coalition of the LDP, the Socialist Party and occasionally one of the newer parties. The Socialist Party, which held opposition to Japan's military growth as its centerpiece for four decades, did an about-face when the coalition chose a Socialist Prime Minister (Tomiichi Murayama), who promptly announced that the Socialists were apparently just kidding about their opposition, and favored military growth after all.

That left the Communists as virtually the only party with a cohesive ideology. Fortunately for Japan, their ideology consists not of anything remotely Marxist, but simply "we oppose whatever the government says." Their oppositional nature is reflected in their recent vigorous speeches against big government and taxes, a fairly un-Communist point of view. If the LDP suddenly declared that perhaps Karl Marx was right after all, the JCP would promptly issue a declaration that Marx was a blithering idiot, but more so were the LDP politicians supporting him.

The JCP's cohesive ideology (such as it is) is primarily what attracted voters in this recent Tokyo election. Japan's other parties should take note: as of 1993, to win in Japanese politics, one needs more than an effective machine, more than loud trucks, and more than legions of young women in tight dresses handing out tissues at train stations saying "Tanaka! Tanaka! Thank you very much! Tanaka!" Political parties need "the vision thing." They need ideas. They need to convince the nation that Japan has a direction, and they are the ones to lead Japan that way. They need ideology.

They need to turn down the volume, and turn up the vigor.

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