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$Pretitle{}
$Title{Japan
Chapter 5C.   Professional Organizations}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Donald M. Seekins}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{ldp
party
members
support
diet
political
factions
groups
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$Date{1981}
$Log{}
Title:       Japan
Book:        Japan, A Country Study
Author:      Donald M. Seekins
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1981

Chapter 5C.   Professional Organizations

     Japan's physicians, lawyers, engineers, academics, and other
professionals have organized into professional associations for the exchange
of knowledge and the influence of government policy in ways that are similar
to those found in other developed countries. One of the most prominent of
these has been the Japan Medical Association. Its demands, directed at the
Ministry of Health and Welfare, have included increases in the fees charged
for Japan's national health care system, the rationalization of health
insurance procedures, and preservation of the system by which doctors,
pursuing a highly profitable sideline, sell their own prescription drugs
rather than sending patients to pharmacists. In the summer of 1971 some 50,000
physicians participated in a one-day strike, organized by the association,
protesting the system of compulsory national health insurance.

Consumers' and Citizens' Movements

     Consumers' and citizens' movements, which became prominent in the late
1960s and 1970s, have not been organized around occupational categories but
around issues relating to the quality of life-the safety and cost of consumer
goods and the protection of the environment from industrial pollution. Finding
themselves opposed to established business interests, these groups have made
alliances with leftist political groups but in general are nonideological.
They have expressed a number of themes: concern for the health and safety of
individuals, shock at the way the natural environment has been ruined by
rampant industrial expansion, as well as an antipathy toward large
corporations greedy for profits. Women have played a prominent part,
especially in consumer movements.

     Women's groups concerned with consumer issues included in late 1981 the
National Federation of Regional Women's Associations (Chifuren), the
Housewives Association (Shufuren), and the National Association of Consumer
Cooperatives (Seikyoren). These have depended on the support of neighborhood
women's associations, the women's sections of local agricultural and fishing
cooperatives, and government-sponsored consumer education groups. Consumer
activity was stimulated by the passing of a Consumer Basic Protection Law in
1968. Subsequently two boycotts were organized by the groups against companies
making canned foods containing carcinogenic cyclamates and those making color
television sets. The latter, protesting artificially high prices, was
especially successful, gaining wide publicity for the consumers' movement.
Sales of these sets declined sharply until manufacturers agreed to give in to
consumerist demands.

     Citizens' movements have been concerned principally with issues relating
to the environment, although observers claim that the earliest citizens'
movements were organized in 1960 to protest the ratification of the Treaty of
Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan.
Antipollution protests were not unknown in the prewar period. In the late
nineteenth century, farmers organized a movement to stop the poisoning of
croplands by effluents from the Ashio copper mine, north of Tokyo. Probably
the most famous postwar movement has been that to obtain redress for victims
suffering from mercury poisoning caused by the pollution of Minamata Bay in
Kumamoto Prefecture by a chemical company. Incidents of chemical poisoning
gave rise to similar protests in Niigata, Toyama, and Yokkaichi in the 1960s.
In all these cases organized groups of victims were able to get compensation
from polluting companies through the courts. Citizens' movements were started
in other places in order to force companies to install pollution control
devices or to prevent them from building factories in local areas.

     In the early 1970s opposition politicians on the local levels were able
to use the issue of pollution to win elections, the conservative LDP being
depicted as an accomplice of greedy business interests. Alliances between
citizens' groups and leftist politicians, however, have not implied an
ideological commitment on the part of the former, and in many cases leftists,
especially the Socialists, have been ambivalent about their support; insofar
as their primary support comes from labor unions whose members regard efforts
to regulate or close down offending factories with little enthusiasm, leftists
have often been indifferent, or even hostile, to citizens' movements. Thus the
socialist mayor of Minamata and union workers refused to support the pollution
victims' movement.

     In the eyes of many observers, the significance of citizens' movements
goes beyond their immediate objectives. They represent, in their words, the
growth of a "new politics," "one of the most important and spectacular trends
in contemporary Japanese history and politics." Environmental groups have
drawn their members from all social classes and backgrounds, united around the
single issue of pollution within a given locality. They have struggled to
maintain their autonomy both from co-option by local-level LDP machines and
from leftist control, although their members often studied organizational
tactics and methods under leftist tutelage. The most active have distanced
themselves from the traditionally oriented neighborhood self-government bodies
that have been used by conservatives to gain local support (see Local
Government, this ch.). Within the movements the hierarchical structure common
to most Japanese groups is largely absent; organization is loosely structured,
and members strive in a self-conscious way to relate to each other
democratically. Although a great diversity of associations has been included
under the label of "citizens' movements," ranging from those that are merely
fronts to those that are genuinely independent, it has been suggested that
they represent a new democratic consciousness, the development of a true
"citizen" rather than a "subject" mentality, and the most potent means through
which individuals can be socialized in democratic values. Nevertheless their
future is somewhat clouded, owing to the resurgence of conservative political
sentiment in the early 1980s.

Minority Rights Groups

     Although the Japanese consider themselves to be a remarkably homogeneous
people, a number of minorities do exist, and these have suffered
discrimination in the past. The largest group is the burakumin, numbering from
1.5 to 3 million in 1981, who are descendants of the outcast communities of
feudal Japan (see Population, ch. 2). The first burakumin rights organization,
the Levellers' Association of Japan (Suiheisha), was established in 1922.
After World War II the National Committee for Burakumin Liberation was
founded, changing its name to the Burakumin Liberation League in the 1950s.
The League, with support from the socialist and communist parties, was able to
pressure the government into making important concessions in the late 1960s
and 1970s. One was the passing of a Special Measures Law for Assimilation
Projects, which provided financial aid for burakumin communities. Another was
the closing of nineteenth century family registers, kept by the Ministry of
Justice, which were maintained for all Japanese, and revealed the outcast
origins of the burakumin. These records could now be consulted only in legal
cases, making it more difficult to discover, and discriminate against,
burakumin. In recent years the Burakumin Liberation League has become
increasingly independent of the leftist parties, stressing burakumin autonomy
and a pragmatic rather than an ideological stance.

     The original inhabitants of the northern region of Japan, the Ainu, were
gradually pushed out of their homeland by settlers from the southern part of
the country over many centuries. Ainu interests have been represented by the
Hokkaido Utari Kyokai, and in recent years there has been a revival of
interest in traditional Ainu art, culture, and ways of life. Although an "Ainu
Liberation" movement had taken responsibility for bombings in various cities
in the 1970s, these acts, it seems, were perpetrated by radical groups rather
than by the Ainu themselves.

     Koreans living in Japan in 1981 numbered approximately 675,000. Like the
burakumin, they have been subject to discrimination, but unlike them, have not
become a part of the regular political process because they are, for the most
part, noncitizens. Their interests in Japan have been advanced by groups
sympathetic to the governments of either the Republic of Korea (South Korea)
or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). The most prominent
is the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chosoren), which is
sponsored by North Korea.

The Press and Politics

     In 1977 Japan had some 120 newspapers with a circulation estimated at 43
million, the five largest being the Asahi shimbun, the Mainichi shimbun, the
Yomiuri shimbun, the Sankei shimbun, and the Nihon keizai shimbun. There were
countless magazines, ranging from politically influential journals such as
Sekai, the Chuo koron, and Bungei shunju to sarariman manga ("salaryman
magazines"), comic books for adults that depict the vicissitudes and fantasies
of contemporary office workers. The major magazines and newspapers have been
vocal in their criticism of government policies, and they have taken great
pains to map out the "tunnels" and "pipelines" through which political
contributions flow from business interests to the ruling LDP and the intricate
matrimonial connections of top conservative politicians, civil servants, and
prominent business leaders. Newspapers were privately owned, although the
largest radio and television broadcasting network, the Japan Broadcasting
Corporation (Nippon Hoso Kyokai-NHK) was a government-owned corporation much
like the British Broadcasting Corporation.

     Observers in 1981 pointed out that the independence of the established
press has been limited by the pervasive "press club" system. Politicians and
government agencies each had one of these clubs containing from ten to over
270 reporters from different newspapers, journals, and broadcast media.
Members in a single club were generally described as being closer to each
other than they were to their respective newspapers and journals; they
established a close and collaborative working relationship with the political
figure or government agency to which the club was attached. There was little
opportunity for reporters to establish a genuinely critical, independent
stance because reporting distasteful matters might lead to their being
excluded from the club and thus unable to gain information and write stories.
Some critics accused the large newspapers, ostensibly oppositionist, of being
little more than a "transmission belt of government ideas to the people"; free
lance reporters, working outside the press club system, often made the real
breakthroughs in investigative reporting, as when one published accounts of
Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei's personal finances in a monthly magazine in
1974.

The Liberal Democratic Party

     The alignment of political parties in postwar Japan has often been called
the "one-and-a-half party system," referring to the fact that in late 1981 the
LDP had been in power for over a quarter of a century. There were several
opposition parties, the largest of these, the JSP, being the "half party" of
the "one-and-a-half party system," but these have been unable to gain enough
electoral support to form governments of their own.

     Despite the emergence of several new opposition parties, the system has
remained remarkably stable, with the LDP hanging on to its majorities in both
the House of Councillors and the House of Representatives. This has enabled
the party to evolve a sound process of policy formulation over the years,
which would not have been possible if opposition parties had been able to form
governments. LDP strength has been based on a coalition of business, and to a
lesser extent, agricultural and other interests, which were sustained through
the collaboration of powerful government bureaucrats. Observers argue that in
the postwar era, political power has rested on a "tripod" of LDP politicians,
big businessmen, and bureaucrats, who were so closely interconnected that in
many cases it was almost impossible to say where one "leg" of the "tripod"
ended and another began (see Policy-making Dynamics, this ch.).

Party History and Basic Principles

     The LDP has a complex genealogy, having roots going back to the groups
formed by Itagaki Taisuke and Okuma Shigenobu in the 1880s. It attained its
present form in November 1955, when the conservative Liberal and Democratic
parties united in response to the threat posed by a unified Socialist Party,
which had been established the month before. The union of the two has often
been described as a "shotgun marriage." Both had strong leaders and had
previously been in competition with each other. The Democratic Party, which
had been established only a year before in November 1954 was itself a
coalition of different groups in which farmers' interests were prominent. The
result of the amalgamation process was a large party, representing a broad
spectrum of interests but which had weak organization in comparison with the
Socialist and other leftist parties.

     The LDP is not, like the leftist parties, based upon a well-defined
ideology or political philosophy, and its principles are at times rather
difficult to define. Its members hold a variety of positions on issues that
can be broadly defined as being to the right of the opposition parties, yet
more moderate than those of Japan's numerous rightist splinter groups (see
Political Extremists, this ch.). The LDP has identified itself with a number
of very general national goals. During most of the postwar period the most
important of these have been rapid economic growth and the development of
overseas markets for exports, a reflection of predominant business interests.
In foreign policy the LDP has pursued a course of close cooperation with the
United States on matters of defense and security as defined within the limits
of both the 1960 security treaty and Article 9 of the Constitution (see
Relations with the United States. ch. 7; Public Order and Internal Security,
ch. 8). In recent years a number of other themes have become prominent. In his
policy speech to the ninety-fifth Extraordinary Session of the Diet on
September 28, 1981, Suzuki reaffirmed his commitment to the enactment of
administrative and fiscal reforms that would create a "simplified and
efficient administration." Government costs would be cut, partly through the
adoption of a "personnel reduction plan," in order to ease the tax burden and
control burgeoning deficits. In the 1981 budget the increase in general
spending was to be held down to 4.3 percent, the lowest increase since 1956.
Other issues of concern have included the creation of a "welfare society"
featuring a better quality of life for the people and the need to deal with
the special problems of Japan's aging population, the "old people boom." There
has been an emphasis on the importance of the "North-South question"-the
relations between developed and developing countries and the need to assist
the latter in their agricultural development and food production.

     Right-wing members of the LDP, perhaps the most prominent having been
Kishi Nobusuke, who was prime minister from 1957 to 1960, have supported
revision of the Constitution, although in general the subject has been
considered taboo for LDP politicians. In February 1981 Suzuki reiterated the
official position that it should not be revised and warned that cabinet
ministers who disagreed with this would be obliged to resign. This has been a
delicate issue for the LDP, one that party leaders would prefer to keep in the
background.

Bases of Support

     The LDP has been perhaps the most "traditionally Japanese" of all the
political parties, relying as it has on a complex network of patron-client
(oyabun-kobun) relationships both on the national and the local levels. There
has been a system of factions found both in the House of Representatives and
the House of Councillors that tied individual LDP Diet members to powerful
party leaders; on the local level Diet members have maintained support groups
(koenkai) in order to gain support during election campaigns and keep in touch
with local public opinion. The importance and pervasiveness of personal ties,
between Diet member and faction leader and between citizen and Diet member,
has given the LDP its pragmatic, nonideological character and has made success
in politics less dependent on mass appeal than on jiban (a strong,
well-organized constituency), kaban (a briefcase full of money), and kanban (a
prestigious appointment, especially a ministry).

     Many observers have pointed out that the LDP has been not so much a
single organization as a loose conglomeration of competitive factions
(habatsu) which, despite traditional emphases on harmony and consensus, have
engaged in bloody infighting that has damaged the party's image in the eyes of
the electorate and has helped the opposition. Over the years factions have
numbered from eight to thirteen, with as few as four members and as many as
over 100. All have been members of the Diet, although the system has been more
deeply entrenched in the House of Representatives, where the real power is,
than in the House of Councillors. Faction leaders have usually been veteran
LDP politicians, many of whom have served as prime minister: Ohira Masayoshi,
Miki Takeo, Fukuda Takeo, and Tanaka Kakuei. Nakasone Yasuhiro and Komoto
Toshio are two faction leaders who by late 1981 had not served as prime
minister. The choice of Suzuki as prime minister in July 1980 was considered
unusual in light of his not being a powerful faction leader, although he had a
reputation as a shrewd middleman and had the support of the Tanaka and Ohira
factions.

     Faction leaders offer to their followers services without which they
would find it difficult, if not impossible, to survive politically. They
provide funds for the day-to-day operation of Diet members' offices and staffs
as well as financial support during expensive election campaigns. This is
essential because operating allowances provided by the government are very
small. The leader also provides his followers with introductions to
influential people in the bureaucracy and the business world, which make it
easier for them to satisfy the demands of their constituents.

     Factions form temporary alliances and combinations, and when a new prime
minister is chosen a "balance of power" is struck between those who support
him-the "mainstream" factions-and those who do not-the "anti-mainstream"
factions. The opposition between mainstream and anti-mainstream faction
groupings can become extremely vindictive. The "spoils" of factional
infighting for the mainstream coalition are the most prestigious cabinet
ministries, such as those of finance, foreign affairs, and international trade
and industry, while the anti-mainstream faction gets the smaller crumbs.

     The LDP faction system has been closely fitted to the nature of House of
Representative electorial districts, which return three to five persons to the
Diet with the exception of the single-member Amami Islands district (see The
Electoral System, this ch.). The LDP has usually run more than one candidate
in each of these constituencies in order to gain a majority in the House of
Representatives, and these candidates have been from different factions. Thus
during an election campaign, the LDP has, in a real sense, run not only
against the opposition parties but against itself. This intraparty
competition, though often sordid and unseemly, has served to keep the party
viable. The struggle between factions has encouraged the rise of different, if
not new, leaders and has prevented the party from ossifying, the result of
power being kept by one leader or small group of leaders over a period of many
decades. The competition between factions has been political and personal,
however, rather than ideological. There have been ideologically based groups
within the LDP, of which the most prominent is probably the "Summer Storm
Group" (Seirankai), formed in 1973 by younger LDP Diet members, which is
rightist and critical of old-style faction politics; but these are still of
less importance than the factions themselves.

     Factions have been seen as something of an embarrassment, despite their
usefulness. In the 1960s LDP politicians as diverse as Kishi Nobusuke, Ikeda
Hayato, and Sato Eisaku denounced them. In 1965 Tanaka, then LDP secretary
general, declared that "the essential condition for the LDP to emerge and grow
in both name and fact as a modern political party responsible for the nation's
policies, is the abolition of the factions." In March 1977 Tanaka, Ohira, and
Fukuda "dissolved" their factions, closing down faction headquarters offices,
but this has been interpreted as little more than a symbolic gesture. A more
significant reform was the adoption in 1978 of a primary system to choose the
LDP party president (and thus prime minister), one that had been advocated by
the reform-minded Miki. Formerly the choice of party president was up to LDP
Diet members and special "prefectural" delegates and thus, in fact, the choice
of the factions. The new system provided for his nomination by a mass
membership in a primary election, the final choice being made by Diet members
from between the two who garnered the largest number of votes. Eligibility was
defined by party membership, members paying annual dues in 1978 of 1,500 Yen
(for value of the yen-see Glossary). In that year there were 1.5 million LDP
members, and when the first primary was held in November, Ohira won an upset
victory over the favorite, Fukuda, by a margin of 78,000 votes, some 87.6
percent of all party members participating. Fukuda conceded, and Ohira became
the first prime minister chosen in this "democratic" manner.

     Observers have argued, however, that there is little difference in fact
between the old and the new systems of choosing a party president and that the
faction system is as strong as ever. Factions shifted their focus from the
Diet members on the national level to their local support organizations
(koenkai), pouring large amounts of money into these and shifting the faction
struggles from the national to the local level. According to political
scientist Tsurutani Taketsugu, "In many districts, there were near-violent
physical confrontations between koenkai members of competing LDP MPs [Members
of Parliament] during the election campaign because, with factional struggle
now nakedly extended to the grassroots level, the LDP candidates' principal
adversaries were no longer candidates but one another. Therefore, relations
among factions within the parliamentary LDP were characterized by an
unprecedented heightening of hostility, mistrust and stridency." The greater
intensity of factional struggle was expressed in the boycott of the Diet by
anti-mainstream faction members during a Socialist-sponsored no confidence
vote in May 1980. The vote carried-an unprecedented development-and the
government was dissolved with elections to be held in June. Suzuki was chosen
prime minister in July 1980 without benefit of a primary, and the future of
the new system looked doubtful.

     The koenkai were in late 1981 perhaps even more important to the survival
of members of the Diet than faction membership. They have served as channels
through which funds and other forms of support are channeled to the candidate
and through which he distributes favors to his constituents in return. They
have promoted cultural, social, and "educational" activities throughout the
year, thus avoiding stringent legal restrictions on political activity outside
of designated election campaign periods. In the prewar years, having an
invincible, or "iron constituency," depended upon gaining the support of
landlords and other local notables. They delivered blocks of votes to the
candidates they favored; in the more pluralistic postwar period, the local
bosses have been much weaker and building an "iron constituency" has been more
difficult. Large amounts of money and a flexible and pervasive network of
supporters' organizations were required. Koenkai have remained particularly
prominent in rural areas, where paternalistic "old style" politics has
flourished and where the LDP has had its strongest electoral support.

"Money Power Politics" and the Tanaka Kakuei Phenomenon

     From 1961 to 1975 the principal source of funds for the LDP as a whole
was the National Association (Kokumin Kyokai), which has been described by
critics as a "tunnel" through which funds flowed to the party from business
interests. Keidanren was alleged to have been especially instrumental in
getting large amounts of money from industrial groups, a total of some 10
Yen to 20 billion Yen annually in the early 1970s. Useful as a means of
"laundering" political funds, the Kokumin Kyokai was implicated in the money
scandals that led to the resignation of Tanaka in 1974, and Keidanren's new
director, Doko Toshio, cut the business group's ties with it that same year. A
new organization, the National Political Association (Kokumin Seiji Kyokai),
was established. Miki, who was prime minister from 1974 to 1976, attempted to
promote reforms of political funding that would reduce party dependence on
large contributions from business and rely more on individual citizen
donations. He hoped to end all corporate contributions after a period of three
years, but other LDP leaders found his proposals too radical and the reforms
were abandoned. The new Kokumin Seiji Kyokai was, in terms of directors and
staff, almost identical with the old Kokumin Kyokai and in late 1981,
contributions from individual business enterprises, especially banks and heavy
industry, and business associations continued to be the major source of
revenue not only for the LDP but for its factions, which garnered funds
independently from the party as a whole.

     In 1975 Miki's government was able to pass-with the support of most of
the opposition parties-an amendment to the Public Office Election Law, which
prohibited Diet members and members of local assemblies from making monetary
contributions to their constituents, and also to pass a revision of the Public
Funds Regulation Law which regulated contributions to politicians more
strictly. Yet irregularities by LDP politicians continued to be a prominent
feature of the political scene. The largest in recent years was the Lockheed
scandal. An inquiry by the United States Senate in February 1976 revealed that
the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation had paid large bribes to government
officials and politicians in Japan in order to sell Lockheed Tristar aircraft
to All Nippon Airways. The money, equivalent to some US$8.73 million, had been
piped through three channels: Kodama Yoshio, shadowy rightist figure with
underworld connections; Marubeni, a trading corporation that handled
Lockheed's business in Japan; and All Nippon Airways itself. A number of top
LDP men were involved, principally Tanaka. He had three other LDP Diet members
were indicted and obliged to resign from the party. A number of other LDP Diet
members, nicknamed "grey officials" in contrast to Tanaka and other indicted
figures being "black officials," were allowed to remain within the party;
however, the party was torn by dissension as "clean" Miki committed himself to
pressing an investigation of the affair, while his opponents desperately
struggled to push him out of office. In June 1976 six LDP Diet members, led by
Kono Yohei, quit the party in disgust and founded their own party, the New
Liberal Club (NLC). Despite Miki's fall in late 1976, the Lockheed
investigation was continued, and six more LDP politicians, including a former
transport minister, were indicted in January 1978.

     The career of Tanaka illustrates the dynamics of factions, local support
organizations, and traditional patron-client relationships in LDP politics.
Tanaka had only a vocational school education and got his start after World
War II in the construction business. Elected to the House of Representatives
from the Third Electoral District of Niigata Prefecture in northern Japan in
1947, he became LDP general secretary (the second highest position in the
party) in 1965, and served as prime minister from 1972 to 1974. Nicknamed the
"bulldozer" for his determination to get ahead and "Hideyoshi" because he,
like the sixteenth century warlord, came from a humble background, Tanaka was
a consummate practitioner of "money politics." In 1974 he was forced to resign
as prime minister because of a scandal involving the sources of his personal
wealth; in July 1976 he was arrested and jailed briefly in connection with the
Lockheed bribery case.

     Although he resigned from the LDP, Tanaka's political career was far from
over. In the December 1976 House of Representatives election, he was reelected
as an independent by the Niigata Third District by a wide margin, carrying
60,000 votes more than were needed to win and only a few thousand less than he
did in 1972 when he was prime minister. Tanaka had maintained a loyal support
base in his constituency, providing this poor, rural district with much-needed
public projects, such as highways and bridges, and express railroad service.
His local support organization, the Etsuzankai, was among the most efficient
in the country, enrolling more than 98,000 members, or 20 percent of the
district's eligible voters. The power of the traditional patron-client appeals
is expressed in the remarks of Third District people who claimed, at the time
of the 1976 election, that they had to "repay their debts" to Tanaka for all
the benefits he had provided them.

     Between 1976 and late 1981 Tanaka, although still under investigation and
facing a possible jail sentence and heavy fines, remained politically powerful
on the national level. His faction was the largest in the LDP, having at least
102 and as many as 140 members in both Houses, and his influence was essential
in making Ohira and Suzuki prime ministers in 1978 and 1980.

The Liberal Democratic Party in National and Local Elections

     The LDP has managed, since 1955, to retain a simple majority in the House
of Representatives and the House of Councillors with the exception of the 1976
lower house election, when it could form a government only with the support of
conservative independents and the breakway NLC. Between 1958 and 1976 both the
percentage of voters supporting LDP candidates and the number of LDP seats in
the Diet gradually declined (see fig. 12). This trend was reversed in the 1979
House of Representatives election and in the "double election" of June 22,
1980, which was unusual in that candidates ran for both houses of the Diet.
The LDP made an impressive comeback, winning 47.9 percent of the popular vote
for the lower house, the highest since 1967. This seemed to mark the beginning
of a conservative resurgence in which opposition hopes of forming a coalition
government were dashed (see The Opposition Parties, this ch.).

     The impressive gains in both houses achieved by the LDP in 1980 were
attributed in part to the "sympathy factor" that was aroused in 1980 by the
death of Ohira in June, particularly among "floating voters" without a strong
party identification, and some observers have even credited the fine weather
on June 22 with encouraging the turnout of LDP supporters. Other, perhaps more
basic, factors would have included the inability of the opposition parties to
present, through the formation of coalitions, a viable alternative to LDP
rule. A pervasive mood of caution, an unwillingness to "rock the boat" rather
than positive support for the LDP, stimulated in part by unstable
international conditions and slower rates of economic growth at home, may have
contributed to the conservative resurgence.

     Even during the "Lockheed election" for the House of Representatives in
December 1976, when the LDP's fortunes reached its lowest ebb, surveys
revealed that voters were less preoccupied with the misdoings of corrupt
politicians than with more concrete issues such as high prices and the
standard of living. Economic issues remained the most salient in the eyes of
the people, and it is likely that as long as economic growth and increases in
the standard of living continue, the LDP will be able to draw on broad popular
support.

     LDP strength remained greatest in the rural districts, declining
statistically from district to district with increasing urbanization (see
table 23, table 24, Appendix). The party might lose its majority in the Diet
if the system of electoral districts, in which rural areas have been greatly
overrepresented, were changed to represent urban districts more fairly (see
The Electoral System, this ch.). In the late 1970s, however, the LDP, in
coalition with moderate opposition parties, began winning back some of the big
city prefectural governorships and mayorships that had been lost to leftist
coalitions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In April 1978 the LDP-backed
independent Hayashida Yukio won against a progressive coalition candidate in
the Kyoto gubernatorial election; in April of the following year another
LDP-backed candidate, Suzuki Shun'ichi, defeated a socialist and
communist-backed opponent for the Tokyo Metropolitan District governorship,
which previously had been held by Minobe Ryokichi, a progressive closely
identified with the citizens' movements, for three terms, or twelve years. In
July 1981 a conservative-centrist coalition retained control of the Tokyo
Metropolitan Assembly although LDP candidates did not form a majority.