The Three-Layered Structure of Japans Conservative Political Shift

Abstract

This article claims that Japanese politics reveals a greater conservative shift than before in three regards. First, in the domain of inter-party competition, liberal or progressive political parties are on the wane, while conservative political parties have become more resilient. The advent of the Japan Restoration Party attests to this case. Second, in the intra-party space, conservative liberals or moderate conservatives have been either divided or weakened while conservative hawks are on the rise. Even within the Democratic Party of Japan, a major opposition party, conservative politicians stand out while progressives have lost their seats. Third, as we analyze Diet members study groups after the mid-1990s, the number of meetings of conservative hawks has been continually increasing with bipartisan membership.