Liberalism in Japan

Japanese liberalism (自由主義 or リベラリズム)^{[note 1]} formed in the nineteenth century as a reaction against traditional society. In the twentieth century 'liberal' (自由) gradually became a synonym for conservative, and today the main conservative party in the country is named Liberal Democratic Party (自由民主党, Jiyū-Minshutō). The defunct Democratic Party (民主党, Minshutō) was considered in part a centrist-liberal party, as are most parties which derived from it. The liberal character of the Liberal League (自由連合, Jiyū Rengō) is disputed, as it is also considered to be conservative by some. This article is limited to liberal (リベラル) parties with substantial support, proved by having had representation in parliament.

Modern Japanese liberalism

Liberals in Japan are generally considered united by one major factor: their opposition to changing the post-World War II constitution forbidding the creation of a national military.^[2]

Before the 1990s, Japanese liberals did not form a prominent individual political party.

• Japan's radical liberalism (left-wing liberalism) emerged as a "peace movement" and was largely led by the Japan Socialist Party (JSP).^[3][4]
• Until the 1990s, conservative liberalism (right-wing liberalism) in Japan was led by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and they contrasted with left-wing liberalism.^[5][6]

Since the 1990s, most conservative liberals have left the LDP. The Japan New Party (JNP) and New Party Sakigake are the parties founded by Japanese conservative-liberals against the LDP's nationalist project, which lead to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)-liberalism tradition. Japan's previous liberal party, the DPJ, was led by moderates of both the right-wing LDP and left-wing JSP.

Currently, the LDP has not been considered a liberal party. In the past, liberals in the LDP became opposition forces after leaving the party, so "liberal" generally became a force against "conservative" in Japanese politics in the 21st century. The current DPJ-liberalism tradition is being continued by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ).^[7]

Since Japanese conservatism was influenced by Shinto, Japan's radical liberalism and democratic socialism were more influenced by Christianity.^[8]

As the LDP becomes an increasingly solid conservative party, and the socialist movement that led the traditional anti-LDP camp has lost control in Japan's opposition political camp, gradually shifting from the centre-right "liberal" in the European and Australian sense of the past to the centre-left "liberal" in the American sense.^[1] Currently, the LDP is the largest conservative party in Japan, and the CDPJ is the largest liberal party in Japan.

Timeline

The sign ⇒ means a reference to another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it isn't necessary that parties labelled themselves "liberal".

From Public Party of Patriots until Constitutional Party

• 1874: Liberals founded the Aikoku Kōtō (愛国公党, Public Party of Patriots)
• 1881: The Aikoku Kōtō is continued by the Jiyūtō (自由党, Liberal Party)
• 1891: The Jiyūtō is renamed into Rikken Jiyūtō (立憲自由党, Constitutional Liberal Party)
• 1898: The Rikken Jiyūtō merged with the ⇒ Shimpotō into the Kenseitō (憲政党, Constitutional Party)
• 1898: A faction seceded as the ⇒ Kensei Hontō; with the former Jiyūtō faction reorganizing itself into the New Kenseitō
• 1900: The party is taken over by the oligarchy and renamed into Rikken Seiyūkai (立憲政友会, Association of Friends of Constitutional Government)

From Constitutional Reform Party to Reform Club

• 1882: The Rikken Kaishintō (立憲改進党, Constitutional Reform Party) is formed
• 1896: The party is continued by the Shimpotō (進歩党, Progressive Party)
• 1898: The party merged into the ⇒ Kenseitō
• 1898: The Kenseitō fell apart and a faction formed the Kensei Hontō (憲政本党, Orthodox Constitutional Party), renamed in 1910 into the Rikken Kokumintō (立憲国民党, Constitutional National Party)
• 1913: A faction seceded as the ⇒ Rikken Dōshikai
• 1922: The Rikken Kokumintō is renamed Kakushin Club (革新倶楽部, Reform Club)
• 1920s: The Kakushin Club merged into the Rikken Seiyūkai

From Association of Friends of the Constitution to Constitutional Democratic Party

• 1913: A faction of the ⇒ Rikken Kokumintō formed the Rikken Dōshikai (立憲同志会, Association of Friends of the Constitution), renamed Kenseikai (憲政会, Constitutional Politics Association) in 1916
• 1927: The Kenseikai merged with the ⇒ Seiyūhontō into the Rikken Minseitō (立憲民政党, Constitutional Democratic Party)
• 1940: The party is dissolved by the military junta

Orthodox Constitutional Friends Party

• 1924: A faction of the Rikken Seiyūkai formed the Seiyūhontō (政友本党, Orthodox Constitutional Friends Party)
• 1927: The party merged into the ⇒ Rikken Minseitō

Postwar period

In postwar Japan, liberal (リベラル) tendencies did not stand out much among major political parties for more than 40 years. During the Japanese Empire, liberals, including the Constitutional Democratic Party, were swept away by several political parties. The center-right liberal-conservatives (自由保守主義) became the 'leftist faction' of the right-wing conservative Liberal Democratic Party, and the center-left progressive-liberals (革新自由主義) formed the 'rightist faction' within the left-wing Socialist Party.

From Renewal Party to Liberal Party

• 1993: A liberal faction of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (自由民主党, Jiyū-Minshutō) seceded as the Renewal Party (新生党, Shinseitō)
• 1994: The Renewal Party merged with other factions into the New Frontier Party (新進党, Shinshintō, "New Progressive Party")
• 1997: The New Frontier Party fell apart into many parties, among them since 1998 the Liberal Party (1998) (自由党, Jiyū-tō), but also the Good Governance Party (民政党, Minseitō), the New Fraternity Party (新党友愛, Shintō Yūai) and the Democratic Reform Party (民主改革連合, Minshu-Kaikaku-Rengō)
• 2000: Dissidents of the Liberal Party formed the New Conservative Party (保守党, Hoshutō)
• 2003: The Liberal Party merged into the ⇒ Democratic Party of Japan
• 2012: People's Life First (国民の生活が第一, Kokumin no Seikatsu ga Dai'ichi) split from the Democratic Party of Japan
• 2012: People's Life First split into a new Liberal Party and Tomorrow Party of Japan (日本未来の党, Nippon Mirai no Tō)
• 2013: Tomorrow Party of Japan dissolved
• 2019: Liberal Party merged into ⇒ Democratic Party for the People

New Harbinger Party

• 1993: A liberal faction of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (自由民主党, Jiyū-Minshutō) seceded as the New Harbinger Party (新党さきがけ, Shintō Sakigake)
• 1996: Most members left to co-found the ⇒ Democratic Party of Japan
• 1998: The remainder of the party evolved in conservative direction and renamed itself as Harbinger (さきがけ, Sakigake), before becoming the ecologist Green Assembly (みどりの会議, Midori no Kaigi) in 2002

Democratic Party of Japan (1998–2016)

• 1996: Dissidents from the ⇒ New Harbinger Party and the Social Democratic Party founded the Democratic Party of Japan (1996) (民主党, Minshutō)
• 1998: The party merged with the Good Governance Party, the New Fraternity Party and the Democratic Reform Party to form a new, enlarged Democratic Party of Japan (1998) (民主党, Minshutō)
• 2003: The ⇒ Liberal Party (1998) merged into the party
• 2016: The Democratic Party of Japan merged with Japan Innovation Party and Vision of Reform to form the Democratic Party (民進党, Minshintō)

CDP and DPP (2017–present)

• 2017: The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (立憲民主党, Rikken-minshutō) is formed as a centre-left social liberal party split from the Democratic Party.
• 2018: The remaining Democratic Party merged with Kibō no Tō to form the Democratic Party for the People (国民民主党, Kokumin Minshutō), which includes liberals and conservatives.
• 2020: The majority faction of DPP merged into the new CDP, while the minority faction remain in the DPP.

Liberal leaders

• Yukio Hatoyama – Prime Minister of Japan from 16 September 2009 to 8 June 2010, Leader of the DPJ (1999–2002, 2009–2010)
• Naoto Kan – Prime Minister of Japan from 8 June 2010 to 2 September 2011, Leader of the DPJ (1998–1999, 2002–2004, 2010–2011)
• Yukio Edano – Leader of the Opposition (2017–2021).
• Kenta Izumi – Leader of the Opposition (2021–).

Liberal thinkers

• Fukuzawa Yukichi
• Itagaki Taisuke
• Yukio Ozaki
• Tokuzō Fukuda
• Masao Maruyama

See also

• Conservatism in Japan

• History of Japan
• Politics of Japan
• List of political parties in Japan
• Mainichi Shimbun
• Reformist party (Japan)
• The Asahi Shimbun
• Chunichi Shimbun
• Non-LDP and non-JCP Coalition
• Kakushin Sētō (progressive political parties)
• Christianity in Japan
• Liberalism in South Korea – This was also influenced by Japanese liberalism during its early formation.

Notes

1. In Japan, American and European style "liberal" / "liberalism" is often referred to as "リベラル" / "リベラリズム" in katakana.^[1] Although the term "自由主義" in kanji is also synonymous with "リベラリズム", "自由主義" is also used by conservatives, including LDP, in a similar sense to anti-communism or economic liberalism.

References

1. "今さら聞けない?! 「保守」「リベラル」ってなんだ？" [Can't you ask about them now ?! What are "conservative" and "liberal"?] (in Japanese). Retrieved 15 May 2020.
2. Brasor, Philip (21 October 2017). "Identifying the 'liberal' in Japanese politics". The Japan Times. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
3. Arthur Stockwin; Kweku Ampiah, eds. (2017). Rethinking Japan: The Politics of Contested Nationalism. Lexington Books. p. 196. ISBN 9781498537933. ... of the debate is the left/liberal "peace movement" currently led by Japanese academics, including legal scholars, and more recently by students, but which until the end of the Cold War was spearheaded by the Japan Socialist Party.
4. Tetsuya Kataoka, ed. (1992). Creating Single-party Democracy: Japan's Postwar Political System. Hoover Institution Press. p. 2. ISBN 9780817991111. The constitution was defended by the JSP, the mainstay of kakushin (radical-liberal forces), ...
5. Tetsuya Kobayashi (1976). Society, Schools, and Progress in Japan. Elsevier Science. p. 68. ISBN 978-1483136226.
6. Japan Almanac. Mainichi Newspapers. 1975. p. 43. In the House of Representatives, the Liberal-Democratic Party, guided by conservative liberalism, is the No.1 party holding a total of 279 seats or 56.8 per cent of the House quorum of 491.
7. Spremberg, Felix (25 November 2020). "How Japan's Left is repeating its unfortunate history". International Politics & Society Journal. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
8. American Assembly; Willard Long Thorp, eds. (1964). Japan's School Curriculum for The 2020s: Politics, Policy, and Pedagogy. Prentice-Hall. p. 17. It is no accident that Japanese radical liberalism and democratic socialism were both closely connected in their beginnings with the Christian movement in Japan. The first Japanese Socialist Party was born in an Americansponsored Christian church in Tokyo, and the majority of its members were Christians with intimate American connections.