Notes

Meanwhile, in Tokyo …. For the past 55 years, Japan has—effectively, for the most part—been a one-party state. In all these years, the Liberal Democratic Party has been in charge, only twice falling short of a majority in the popular vote. Between the end of World War II and 1968, the LDP guided the country from its defeat and widespread destruction to being the world’s second-largest economy.

But now the party is back on its heels again. In late October, the LDP failed to win a majority in general elections, losing almost 70 of its 259 seats in Parliament. A financing scandal hurt them, while inflation has unsettled the country’s economy. The party did manage to secure Parliament’s approval in mid-November for a coalition government; still, the cabinet only has a minority of seats in the legislature, raising questions about how it’s going to govern. What happened here?

Today, Tobias S. Harris examines the steep drop in support for the LDP, the years-long erosion of trust in Japan’s public institutions, and the unusual reasons why populist politics haven’t had any real traction in the country’s national politics.

—Michael Bluhm