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Electoral Consequences of Municipal Mergers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2016

Kay Shimizu
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Extract

The dominance of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was long buttressed by the existence of a strong political support base in the rural areas led by local politicians who worked on behalf of national LDP politicians seeking reelection. In recent years, municipal mergers have drastically weakened the LDP's support base by reducing the number of local politicians and redrawing electoral district boundaries. Surprisingly, the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), could not take full advantage of these new institutional arrangements. Instead, local politicians have become more independent of both major parties. As a result, at a time of increasing numbers of floating voters, neither of Japan's two major parties has a reliable local base across the country. To succeed, both parties must pay attention to the changing needs of the increasingly independent—and very often still rural—localities.

Keywords

municipal mergerslocal electionselectoral redistrictingindependent votersDemocratic Party of JapanLiberal Democratic Party
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 3: Special Issue: Japan under the DPJPhillip Y: Lipsey and Ethan Scheiner as guest editors , September 2012 , pp. 381 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

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