Japanese prime ministers and party leadership
| Author | Yu Uchiyama |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20578911221114509 |
| Published date | 01 March 2023 |
| Date | 01 March 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Original Research Articles |
Japanese prime ministers
and party leadership
Yu Uchiyama
The University of Tokyo, Japan
Abstract
This article shows what were/are the features of Japanese prime ministers as party leaders, as well
as how and why these features have changed over the last 20 years. It focuses on three dimensions:
party centralisation, internal cohesion and leadership security. On party centralisation, the
electoral reform of 1994 introduced a single-member district system into the House of
Representatives, or Lower House. This reform ended intra-party competition within the LDP
that had existed under the multi-member system and since then the party has become much
more centralised. On internal cohesion, the electoral reform has provided the prime minister
with a powerful instrument to control the party: the power of endorsement. On leadership secur-
ity, prime ministers like KoizumiJunichiro
̄and Abe Shinzo
̄were successful in restraining rebels and
securing their leadership by effectively using the power of endorsement along with the power of
appointment. However, a considerable number of prime ministers in the 21st centur y have had
short tenures of about one year. While the personalisation of politics has made the position of
popular prime ministers more secure, it has made unpopular prime ministers highly vulnerable.
Keywords
Japanese prime minister, Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, party centralization, political
leadership
Introduction
According to Heppell in this special issue, prime ministerial leadership as party leaders can be ana-
lysed along three dimensions: party centralisation, internal cohesion and leadership security. This
accompanying article will show what were/are the features of Japanese prime ministers as party
leaders, as well as how and why these features have changed over the last 20 years, by focusing
on these dimensions. Heppell and I address three questions in our articles. On party centralisation,
Corresponding author:
Yu Uchiyama, Department of Advanced Social and International Studies, The University of Tokyo, Japan.
Email: yuchi@waka.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Original Research Article
Asian Journal of Comparative Politics
2023, Vol. 8(1) 83–94
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/20578911221114509
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