Description of Japanese Politics in1995

Kobe earthquake and Aum's poisonous gas murder

The myth that Japan was one of the safest countries in the world was totally denied by two accidents occurred in Japan in 1995.
Early in the morning on 17 January 1995, a gigantic earthquake hit Kobe city and its surroundings where two million inhabitants were still sleeping. 6310 citizens died. More than 1.26 million households were suffered from the cut of water, electricity and gas supplies for long time, and 32,000 people had to take refugee in class rooms and gymnastic halls in public schools due to the breakdown of their houses.

Murayama cabinet and local authorities were denounced by the public for its slow and inefficient response to the emergency situations caused by the earthquake. In case of Kobe city office, only 40 percent civil servants could reach their working places on the day. In case of Hyogo prefectural office, only 20 percent of the civil servant could appear to the prefectural office building by 2.00 o'clock in the afternoon.
Government has quickly sent a survey team to Los Angeles to investigate and learn the emergency response by the authority, especially the function of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) although Murayama cabinet quitted the idea of establishing similar type of organization to FEMA in Japan.

In the morning on 20 March 1995, passengers in rush hour trains in metropolitan Tokyo were attacked by poisonous gas scattered by a militant religious group named 'AUM'. Eleven passengers died and more than 5,500 passengers were suffered. AUM carried out the indiscriminate massacre because they wished to show their power against the police authority who tried to investigate the kidnapping of a lawyer committed by AUM in February 1994. In order to strengthen the control over the militant religious group, Murayama cabinet proposed new Religious Organization Law on 18 October 1995 and pass it through National Diet on 8 December 1995.

Upper House election on 23 July and reshuffled Murayama cabinet

On 23 July 1995, the election of the House of Councillors was held. No particular issue did not exist in this election. The central issue was the assessment of the incumbent LDP-SDP-Sakigake coalition cabinet with socialist prime minister. New Frontier Party (Shinshin-to), the main opposition, criticized this three parties' coalition as an unprincipled alignment of three parties only to retain the ruling power because the LDP and the SDP consisted two major parties which opposed to each other in the long-lived quasi two party system since 1955. On the other hand, ruling three parties claimed that the combination of the three parties symbolized the coming of the new era in Japanese politics after the collapse of the socialist block and cold war situation in 1989.
The result of the election was the lowest turnout ratio since the end of the World War II. The average turnout ratio in the election was 44.52 percent in the prefectural constituencies while the ratio was 50.72 percent in 1992.

The 'new' non-partisan independent voters which had been grown up since 1993 election of the House of Representatives showed little interest in this election and caused this low turnout ratio. According to the result of the sample survey carried out by Asahi Shimbun (Asahi daily newspaper), non-partisan independent voters increased from 30 percent in July 1993 to 57 percent in July 1995, while the LDP supporters dropped from 45 percent in 1993 to 22 percent in 1995 and SDP supporters dropped from 13 percent in 1993 to 7 percent in 1995. The 'new' independent voters are much interested in politics and severe in the judgment of parties' policies. In the same survey, 73 percent voters answered they are much interested in politics and answered that they watched political news in newspapers or on television. They also answered that they wish to have such parties which were "excellent in their policies and not manipulated by the bureaucrats." This increase of the non-partisan independents was seen both in urban and in rural areas.

Concerning achievements by parties in the election, New Frontier Party (NFP) acquired the largest proportion of votes both in the proportional and the prefectural constituencies. Prime minister Murayama reshuffled his cabinet on 8 August 1995 to strengthen the centrifugal power of the three parties' coalition. In this reshuffled cabinet, Mr. Isamu Miyazaki, a civilian economist, was nominated to be the Minister of Economic Planning Agency.

Popular movements against military bases in Okinawa and redefinition of Japan-US Security Treaty

On 4 September 1995, a elementary school girl was assaulted by four US soldiers in Okinawa island. Local police authority claimed the hand over of the offenders to Japanese side while Okinawan US military headquarters rejected the claim quoting the sentence (article 17 section 5-c) in Japan-US Administrative Agreement attached to the Japan-US Security Treaty. Mr. Masahide Ohta, Governor of Okinawa prefecture, expressed in public his will not to endorse the legal and forcible action to rent farmers' land for the use of US military bases even if Japanese central government asked him to do so.

In case that the governor rejected the endorsement of the legal action to rent land for US military bases, prime minister of Japanese government had to endorse the legal action on behalf of the governor, while incumbent prime minister was the president of the SDP which publicly opposed the existence of the US bases in Japan for long time. On 18 October 1995, more than 85,000 citizens gathered in Ginowan city in Okinawa to demonstrate their wish to abolish US military bases in Okinawa.

On 15 November, US president Clinton who was scheduled to visit Osaka in November on the occasion of APEC decided not to visit Japan. This was a beginning of a long and difficult adjustment to redefine Japan-US relations in post-cold war international situation.

Table 1. Result of the House of Councillor's election (Upper House)*
Date of election: 23 July 1995

Key:

* The total 252 members of the House of Councillors, the second chamber in Japanese National Diet, are elected using two different electoral systems. One hundred members are elected in the proportional representation system using the pre-ranked lists of candidates prepared by parties. Voters cast ballots by hand-writing the name of the party they support. The remaining 152 members are elected from 47 prefecture-based constituencies. Half of the total 252 members are elected every third year while the term of the Councillor is six years.

Table 2. Number of seats in the National Diet
(4 August 1995)*

* First day of the extra-ordinary session of the National Diet after the election of the House of Councillors on 23 July 1995.

Table 3. Cabinet composition on 1 January 1995

A. Party composition of Murayama cabinet
(Date of investiture: 30 June 1994)
(on 30 January 1995)*

B. Cabinet members**

Prime Minister: Tomiichi Murayama (SDP, 1924, male, HR)
Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs: Yohei Kono (LDP, 1937, male, HR)
Minister of Justice: Isao Maeda (LDP, 1943, male, HC)
Minister of Finance: Masayoshi Takemura (Sakigake, 1934, male, HR)
Minister of Education: Kaoru Yosano (LDP, 1938, male, HR)
Minister of Welfare: Shoichi Ide (Sakigake, 1939, male, HR)
Minister of Agriculture: Taichiro Ohkawara (LDP, 1922, male, HC)
Minister of Trade and Industry: Ryutaro Hashimoto (LDP, 1937, male, HR)
Minister of Transportation: Shizuka Kamei (LDP, 1936, male, HR)
Minister of Posts and Telecommunication: Shun Ohide (SDP, 1922, male, HR)
Minister of Labour: Manzo Hamamoto (SDP, 1920, male, HC)
Minister of Construction: Koken Nosaka (SDP, 1924, male, HR)
Minister of Home Affairs: Hiromu Nonaka (LDP, 1925, male, HR)
Chief Cabinet Officer: Kozo Igarashi (SDP, 1926, male, HR)
Management and Coordination Agency: Turuo Yamaguchi (SDP, 1925, male, HR)
Hokkaido and Okinawa Development Agency: Sadatoshi Ozato (LDP, 1930, male, HR)
Minister of Defense: Tokuichiro Tamazawa (LDP, 1937, male, HR)
Economic Planning Agency: Masahiko Komura (LDP, 1942, male, HR)
Science and Technology Agency: Makiko Tanaka (LDP, 1944, female, HR)
Environmental Agency: Shin Sakurai (LDP, 1933, male, HR)
From 14 August 1994: Sohei Miyashita (LDP, 1927, male, HR)
National Land Agency: Kiyoshi Ozawa (LDP, 1927, male, HR)

* First day of the session of the National Diet in 1995.
** HR refers to House of Representatives and HC to House of Councillors.

Table 4. Cabinet composition of Murayama reshuffled cabinet on 8 August 1995

A. Party composition of Murayama reshuffled cabinet
(Date of investiture: 30 June 1994,
reshuffled on 8 August 1995)

B. Cabinet members of Murayama reshuffled cabinet*

Prime Minister: Tomiichi Murayama (SDP, 1924, male, HR)
Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs: Yohei Kono (LDP, 1937, male, HR)
Minister of Justice: Tomoji Tazawa (LDP, 1933, male, HC)
From 9 October: Hiroshi Miyazawa (LDP, 1921, male, HC)
Minister of Finance: Masayoshi Takemura (Sakigake, 1934, male, HR)
Minister of Education: Yoshinobu Shimamura (LDP, 1934, male, HR)
Minister of Welfare: Tadayoshi Morii (SDP, 1929, male, HR)
Minister of Agriculture: Yoshinari Norota (LDP, 1930, male, HC)
Minister of Trade and Industry: Ryutaro Hashimoto (LDP, 1937, male, HR)
Minister of Transportation: Takeo Hiranuma (LDP, 1939, male, HR)
Minister of Posts and Telecommunication: Issei Inoue (SDP, 1932, male, HR)
Minister of Labour: Shinji Aoki (SDP, 1926, male, HC)
Minister of Construction: Yoshiro Mori (LDP, 1937, male, HR)
Minister of Home Affairs: Takashi Fukaya (LDP, 1937, male, HR)
Chief Cabinet Officer: Koken Nosaka (SDP, 1925, male, HR)
Management and Coordination Agency: Takami Eto (LDP, 1925, male, HC)
From 13 November: Masateru Nakayama (LDP, 1932, male, HR)
Hokkaido and Okinawa Development Agency: Masaaki Takagi (LDP, 1929, male, HC)
Minister of Defense: Seishiro Eto(LDP, 1941, male, HR)
Economic Planning Agency: Isamu Miyazaki (Economist, 1924, male, HR)
Science and Technology Agency: Yasuoki Urano (LDP, 1942, male, HR)
Environmental Agency: Tadamori Ooshima (LDP, 1947, male, HR)
National Land Agency: Seiichi Ikehata (SDP, 1930, male, HR)

* HR refers to House of Representatives and HC to House of Councillors.

Description of Japanese Politics 1994

The end of anti-LDP Hosokawa coalition cabinet

Hosokawa cabinet which was formed on 9 August in 1993 by all opposition parties except JCP to end long-lived one party dominance of the LDP in Japanese politics was collapsed on 8 April 1994. From the beginning the main and sole function of Hosokawa cabinet was to stop LDP's absolute majority one-party rule which lasted 38 years since 1955. In August 1993 when the LDP split itself into two groups, all opposition parties except Communist Party gathered and formed a coalition government with all the differences in their ideologies and policies to attain the goal after the election. It may be reasonable, therefore, Hosokawa cabinet has lost its raison d'etre at the time when it was formed and when it achieved the end of one party rule of the LDP. Hosokawa cabinet was a short-lived land mark of the end of the 38 year-lasted LDP's one party dominance era and the beginning of the coalition government era in Japanese politics.

Prime minister Hosokawa, however, advocated 'political reform' as the main objectives of his coalition cabinet and tried to consolidate the fragile framework which include both right-wing conservatives of the JRP and the left-wing socialists of the SDP. He proposed 'Political Reform Bills' on 17 September 1993, which contained : (1) introduction of the single-member simple-majority constituency system simply coupled with the proportional representation system into the election of the House of Representatives, and (2) the introduction of the public financing system of the party activities in accordance with the number of the members of the parties in the Diet.

On 29 January 1994, political reform bills were passed through both Houses of the Diet on the basis of last-minute agreements achieved a day before the end of the session between Kono, president of the LDP, and prime minister Hosokawa. Although the coalition government occupied the absolute majority in the House of Representatives, it needs the support of the LDP in the House of Councillors to pass through any bills because the coalition side could not control the majority in the House. Because of the lack of time, both Houses passed the government bills on the condition that these bills would be further modified in the next Diet session. The modified bills were passed by the House of Representatives on 1 March and by the House of Councillors on 4 March 1994.

According to the modified bills, the total number of seats of the House of Representatives is 500. Majority 300 seats are elected in single-member constituencies with non-transferable single ballot and simple plurality. The other 200 seats are elected by the proportional representation system using 11 large bloc constituencies. The electorate casts two votes, one for the individual candidate in the local single-member constituency, the other for a political party under the proportional representation system. The bills define political parties as organizations (1) which have at least one incumbent member in the Diet, and which gained more than 2 % of the vote in the previous national election; or (2) which have more than five incumbent members in the Diet.(Concerning the details of the 'Political Reform Bills' and the discussion on political reform in Japan, see Shiratori 'The Politics of Electoral Reform in Japan', International Political Science Review, 16:1, 79-94)

Concerning the public financing of parties, the amount of financial help for each party is fixed at two third of the total income of the party in the previous year. The total amount of the public financing will be the accumulation of 250 yen per person multiplied by the number of population of the whole nation. It is extimated that the total amount of public financing to parties will be around 30.9 billion yen. Parties will receive the public fund in accordance with the size of the party in the National Diet and in accordance with the number of votes they acquired in the previous national election. Parties are expected to disclose expenditure over 50,000 yen to the election committees. After passing through the Political Reform Bills, Hosokawa coalition cabinet had quickly lost its centripetal force as a unified organization. Furthermore, prime minister Hosokawa's involvement in money scandals had made him politically incapable to deploy any policy actions in the Diet. Prime minister Hosokawa announced his resignation on 8 April 1994.

Hata minority cabinet - A short-lived minority coalition cabinet

At the collapse of the Hosokawa cabinet in April, the parties which constituted anti-LDP Hosokawa cabinet tried to retain the power by re-aligning the party coalition. Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, the initiator of the introduction of the single-member constituency system in the election of the House of Representatives and the key person in splitting the LDP, tried to form a large new conservative party on the basis of anti-LDP feeling on 25 April 1994 after the nomination of new prime minister. He organized Kaishin (Reform Club) in the National Diet, combining members of JRP (who split the LDP), JNP (Hosokawa's party), Democratic Socialists Party (DSP) and other minor conservative parties together.

The Social Democratic Party (Japan Socialist Party, SDP) disliked the Ozawa's initiative, considering the move was a plot which aimed to exclude SDP from the future coalition. Besides, the SDP had often difficulties in retaining alliance with Ozawa's JRP in security matters in Hosokawa cabinet because Ozawa was an advocate of sending Japanese Defense Force to outside Japanese territory for PKF activities. In the nomination of the new prime minister on 25 April, SDP voted for Mr. Hata, President of the JRP. On the same day, however, the SDP decided to split the coalition with JRP after the nomination when they knew the formation of Kaishin by JRP under Ozawa's leadership. Hata tried to restore the coalition with the SDP unsuccessfully, and formed a minority coalition cabinet. Because it was minority cabinet, it had to be a short-lived one, and could survive only for two months.

The Kaishin Club which included JRP, JNP, DSP and other minor parties transformed it self to be a unified political party with Komei. This new party, Shinshin-to (New Frontier Party, NFP), was organized on 15 December 1994 as main opposition conservative against the LDP.

Murayama cabinet - Socialist prime minister supported by the conservatives

The LDP decided to do every kind of efforts to regain the power after watching the SDP's splitting its coalition with JRP and Komei. The LDP was a party which pursued the realization of materialistic and secular interests. The rapid economic growth in the 1960s was the most brilliant achievement of the LDP. It had no solid ideological basis nor fundamental policy principles. At the nomination of new prime minister on 29 June 1994, in order to get back the power the LDP decided to form a coalition with SDP and vote for Tomiichi Murayama, President of the SDP, to be the prime minister.

Thus, the two major parties which divided the whole political arena in Japan for 38 years since 1955 jointly formed a coalition government with socialist prime minister. Murayama cabinet, with the LDP, SDP, and Sakigake, occupied over 60 % seats in both Houses. The cabinet passed 100% of the bills it proposed in the 131 extra-ordinary session of the National Diet which started from 30 September 1994 in spite of the weak leadership of prime minister Murayama. The LDP welcomed the weak leadership of prime minister to avoid a decisive collision between conservative LDP and socialist SDP in policies.

The LDP advocated 'the realization of welfare State in Japan' at the time of establishment in 1955. The LDP also carried out 'Fukoku Jyakuhei' (enrich the nation by minimizing militaristic capability) policy all the way through its successive cabinets by keeping military budget below 1% of the GNP. On the other hand, the SDP which advocated 'the realization of socialist regime in Japan' in 1955 when it was established had to quit the socialist ideology in facing with the democratization of the Soviet and Central European countries in 1989. When SDP quitted the socialist ideology, SDP could not find any other causes to appeal to the public than the welfare state concept as well as the present Japanese Constitution which include article 9 of 'the renunciation of war' as a sovereign right of the nation. The LDP quitted its old idea of revising present constitution in its 'New Declaration' in 1994, which appreciated 'the peace principle' and 'the guarantee of the fundamental freedoms and human rights' in its text. Even if the conservative LDP and socialist SDP were rivaling two major parties in the past, they have substantial common causes today. It might not be so strange even if these two parties form a coalition government at this time.

Table 1. Composition of Hosokawa Cabinet

A. Ministerial Composition of the Hosokawa Cabinet
(on 1 January 1994)

B. The party composition of National Diet under Hosokawa cabinet
(on 25 April 1994)

Key:

C. Cabinet members4

Prime Minister: Morihiro Hosokawa (JNP, 1938, male, HR)
Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs: Tsutomu Hata (JRP, 1935, male, HR)
Minister of Justice: Akira Mikazuki (-,1921, male, Scholar)
Minister of Finance: Hirohisa Fujii (JRP, 1932, male, HR)
Minister of Education: Ryoko Akamatsu (-, 1929, female, Ex-bureaucrat)
Minister of Welfare: Keigo Ohuchi (DSP, 1930, male, HR)
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries: Eijiro Hata (JRP, 1928, male, HR)
Minister of International Trade and Industry: Hiroshi Kumagai (JRP, 1940, male, HR)
Minister of Transportation: Shigeru Itoh (SDP, 1928, male, HR)
Minister of Posts and Telecommunications: Takenori Kanzaki (Komei, 1943, male, HR)
Minister of Labour: Chikara Sakaguchi (Komei, 1934, male, HR)
Minister of Construction: Kozo Igarashi (SDP, 1926, male, HR)
Minister of Home Affairs: Kanju Sato (SDP, 1942, male, HR)
Chief Cabinet officer: Masayoshi Takemura (Sakigake, 1934, male, HR)
Minister of Management and Coordination Agency: Koshiro Ishida (Komei, 1930, male, HR)
Minister of Hokkaido and Okinawa Development Agency, and of National Land Agency: Kosuke Uehara (SDP, 1932, male, HR)
Minister of Defense Agency: Keisuku Nakanishi (JRP, 1942, male, HR)
(From 2 December 1993) Kazuo Aichi (JRP, 1937, male, HR)
Minister of Economic Planning Agency: Manae Kubota (SDP, 1924, female, HC)
Minister of Science and Technology Agency: Satsuki Eda (UDS, 1941, male, HR)
Minister of Environmental Agency: Wakako Hironaka (Komei, 1934, female, HC)
Minister (in charge of political reform): Sadao Yamahana (SDP, 1936, male, HR)

Table 2. Composition of the Hata cabinet on 4 April 1994

A. Ministerial composition of Hata cabinet
(Date of Investiture: 28 April 1994)

B. Party composition of Hata cabinet
(on 28 April 1994)

C. Cabinet members

Prime Minister: Tsutomu Hata (JRP, 1935, male, HR)
Minister of Justice: Shigeto Nagano (JRP, 1922, male, HC)
From 8 May 1994: Hiroshi Nakai (DSP, 1942, male, HC)
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Koji Kakizawa (Liberal Party, 1933, male, HR)
Minister of Finance: Hirohisa Fujii (JRP, 1932, male, HR)
Minister of Education: Ryoko Akamatsu (-,1929, female, Ex-bureaucrat)
Minister of Welfare: Keigo Ouchi (DSP, 1930, male, HR)
Minister of Agriculture: Mutsuki Kato (JRP, 1926, male, HR)
Minister of Trade and Industry: Eijiro Hata (JRP, 1928, male, HR)
Minister of Transportation: Nobuaki Futami (Komei, 1935, male, HR)
Mininster of Posts and Telecommunication: Katsuyuki Higasa (Komei, 1945, male, HR)
Minister of Labour: Kunio Hatoyama (Former Reformist Party, 1948, male, HR)
Minister of Construction: Koji Morimoto (Komei, 1942, male, HR)
Minister of Home Affairs: Hajime Ishii (JRP, 1934, male, HR)
Chief Cabinet Officer: Hiroshi Kumagai (JRP, 1940, male, HR)
Management and Coordination Agency: Koshiro Ishida (Komei, 1930, male, HR)
Hokkaido and Okinawa Development Agency: Moriyoshi Sato (JRP, 1924, male, HR)
Minister of Defence: Atsushi Kanda (DSP, 1941, male, HR)
Economic Planning Agency: Yoshio Terasawa (JNP, 1931, male, HC)
Science and Technology Agency: Mikio Ohmi (Komei, 1935, male, HR)
Environmental Agency: Toshiko Hamayotsu (Komei, 1945, female, HC)
National Land Agency: Megumu Sato (JRP, 1924, male, HR)

D. Nomination in the National Diet

Table 3. Composition of the Murayama cabinet

A. Ministerial composition of Murayama cabinet
(Date of investiture: 30 June 1994)

B. Party composition of Murayama cabinet
(on 30 June 1994)

Notes:
Kaishin was a parliamentary group in the House of Representatives which included JRP, JNP, DSP and other minor parties. Shin Ryokufu-kai was a parliamentary group in the House of Councillors which included JRP, JNP, DSP and other minor parties.

C. Cabinet members

Prime Minister: Tomiichi Murayama (SDP, 1924, male, HR)
Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs: Yohei Kono (LDP, 1937, male, HR)
Minister of Justice: Isao Maeda (LDP, 1943, male, HC)
Minister of Finance: Masayoshi Takemura (Sakigake, 1934, male, HR)
Minister of Education: Kaoru Yosano (LDP, 1938, male, HR)
Minister of Welfare: Shoichi Ide (Sakigake, 1939, male, HR)
Minister of Agriculture: Taichiro Ohkawara (LDP, 1922, male, HC)
Minister of Trade and Industry: Ryutaro Hashimoto (LDP, 1937, male, HR)
Minister of Transportation: Shizuka Kamei (LDP, 1936, male, HR)
Minister of Posts and Telecommunication: Shun Ohide (SDP, 1922, male, HR)
Minister of Labour: Manzo Hamamoto (SDP, 1920, male, HC)
Minister of Construction: Koken Nosaka (SDP, 1924, male, HR)
Minister of Home Affairs: Hiromu Nonaka (LDP, 1925, male, HR)
Chief Cabinet Officer: Kozo Igarashi (SDP, 1926, male, HR)
Management and Coordination Agency: Turuo Yamaguchi (SDP, 1925, male, HR)
Hokkaido and Okinawa Development Agency: Sadatoshi Ozato (LDP, 1930, male, HR)
Minister of Defense: Tokuichiro Tamazawa (LDP, 1937, male, HR)
Economic Planning Agency: Masahiko Komura (LDP, 1942, male, HR)
Science and Technology Agency: Makiko Tanaka (LDP, 1944, female, HR)
Environmental Agency: Shin Sakurai (LDP, 1933, male, HR)
From 14 August 1994: Sohei Miyashita (LDP, 1927, male, HR)
National Land Agency: Kiyoshi Ozawa (LDP, 1927, male, HR)

D. Nomination in the National Diet