JAPAN: ONE-PARTY RULE ENDS, MANEUVERING BEGINS

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06845924
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2020
• Case Number: F-2019-02094
• Publication Date: July 19, 1993

Approved for Release: 2020/02/24 C06845924
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19 July 1993
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Contents
pecial Analyses Japan: One-Party Rule Ends, Maneuvering Begins 9
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I LI I LI
Major Parties in Japanese Election
Preelection
Strength in
Lower House
Candidates
Seats
Won
Liberal Democratic Party
227
285
223
Social Democratic Party
134
142
.7/1
/ tO
Japan Renewal Party
36
69
55
Komeito
45
54
51
Japan New Party
0
55
35
Democratic Socialist Party
13
28
15
Japan Communist Party
16
129
15
Harbinger Party
10
15
13
Too
19 July 1993
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Special Analysis
JAPAN: One-Party Rule Ends, Maneuvering Begins
The Liberal Democratic Party's loss of its majority in yesterday's Diet
election ushers in a period of backroom jockeying as politicians seek
to form a new government. Trying to build a coalition will vreoccuov
Javanese leaders for at &net immoral suaelre
The LDP and the conservative breakaway Japan Renewal Party seem
to have done well in the election. Although the LDP lost its majority,
the 223 seats it won give it the plurality that polls had projected. The
JRP exceeded expectations by taking 55 seats. Both parties appear to
have benefited from the strength of local support eroung as well as
voter loyalty to individual politicians
At the same time, the Social Democratic Party and the reformist
Japan New Party performed poorly. The SDP, Japan's second-largest
party, won a record-low 70 seats, and the JNP, which had expected to
be the main beneficiary of the public's apparent appetite for change,
won only 35. Voters seem to have rejected the SDP's leftist policies as
outdated; the organizationally weak JNP appears to have suffered
because rainy weather kept voter turnout low-67 percent lown
6 points from the last lower-house election.
Next Moves
The LDP will have an edge as all parties try to assemble the 256 seats
needed for a simple majority. The LDP probably will try to woo
independent conservatives as well as such like-minded parties as the
JNP and the Harbinger Party, which are expected to merge soon.
Some are already pushing themselves as potential coalition partners;
the small conservative Democratic
Socialist Party has reversed its campaign stance that rejected
cooperation. Although JRP leaders are still talking about a broad
anti-LDP coalition, they would need to collect virtually every
opposition entity except the Communists in order to succeed. Among
those they would have to include are the Social Democrats, whose
positions have been anThema to the JRP and other opposition
parties.
Prominent LDP leaders are withdrawing their support from Prime
Minister Miyazawa in the wake of the election, and he is expected to
head a caretaker government until the Diet designates a successor in a
continued
9 19 July 1993
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special session. Accordin to the Constitution, this session must be
called by 17 August; it will start on 2 August. The
LDP's differences wi ot ers on the key issue of political reform and
its reluctance to share coveted government positions suggest that
coalition han7ining could well continue into the special session.
10
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