The Phenomenon of the Liberal Party (Jiyū-tō) in the Political System of Japan: The Political Brand Evolution and Its Ideological Content

Abstract

The title of the party is a political brand, which reflects its ideological focus. In Japanese political history, the party brand of the Liberal party (Jiyū-tō) repeatedly changed its ideological content. The problem and chronological method of analysis of existing historical factology allows to comprehend the tendencies of ideological and organizational evolution of Jiyū-tō party brand, which have appeared over the last century and a half, as well as to provide a forecast of future fate of the Japanese Liberal Party. This makes the final subject of this research. Before World War I in Imperial Japan, the first three Jiyū-tō projects focused on liberal values. However, they quickly faded away: either due to self-removal of the leader from the party leadership and subsequent radicalization (1881–1884); or self-liquidation and joining the party coalition for the formation of the first party government (1891–1898); or due to marginalization because of the lack of enthusiasm of voters (1903–1905). The two initial post-war ideologically and personally deeply conservative Jiyū-tō projects (1945–1948 and 1950–1955) were liberal only in titles and at first joined the right-wing conservative Democratic Liberal Party (Minshujiyū-tō), then the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (Jiyūminshu-tō). In 1998, there was an attempt to restore the project of Jiyū-tō as an ideological liberal party. It ended in 2003 due to the split and marginalization, authorized by the political adventurism of its leader Ozawa Ichirō. Up today there was the eighth renewal of Jiyū-tō, headed again by Ozawa Ichirō in 2016. It was based on the centre-left liberalism, but the presence in today’s Japan of several centrist parties with similar programs does not allow the Jiyū-tō to succeed in political competition. It has led to the loss of representation in the Parliament and the self-dissolution on April 27, 2019. From that moment the liberal niche in Japan’s political system again became vacant, which preserves the possibility of renewal of Jiyū-tō party project in future.