Opinion and Politics in Japanese Period

Liberal-Democratic Party of Japan (LDP), also spelled Liberal

Democratic Party, Japanese Jiyū Minshutō, Japan’s largest political party,
which has held power almost continuously since its formation in 1955. The
party has generally worked closely with business interests and followed a pro-
U.S. foreign policy. During nearly four decades of uninterrupted power (1955–
93), the LDP oversaw Japan’s remarkable recovery from World War II and its
development into an economic superpower. The party largely retained control
of the government from the mid-1990s, the main exception being the period
2009–12, when the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) was in power.

The Japanese surrender at the end of World War II in 1945 was followed
by a decade of political confusion. New parties were formed from the
remnants of the old ones: the Liberal Party built on the old Seiyūkai, whereas
the Progressive Party drew on factions of both the Seiyūkai and the Minseitō.
The party system was highly fluid, with parties frequently merging or
dissolving. For example, from 1945 to 1954 the Progressive Party changed its
name four times, becoming the Democratic Party in 1947, the National
Democratic Party in 1950, the Reform Party in 1952, and finally the Japan
Democratic Party in 1954. In 1947–48 this party also joined with the Socialist
Party to form a brief coalition government under the auspices of the U.S.-
led occupation of Japan (1945–52).

Other than this coalition government, it was common for two or

three conservative parties to dominate Japan’s political scene in the first
postwar decade. This decade ended on November 15, 1955, when the
Democrats and the Liberals formally united to form the Liberal-Democratic
Party. With this merger, the LDP established itself as the conservative
alternative to the growing power of the socialist and communist parties.