H199 Kingston Ch. 3 Postwar Politics

Who dominates postwar Japanese politics?

To what does the "Iron Triangle Refer"?

What is the "1955 System"? (Note: we will read a full article on this topic later.)

What things does the LDP support?

Kingston says that in the late 1950s the LDP "seemed to represent a shrinking, backward-looking, tradition-bound constituency." (22) But what did the LDP manage to do?

And how about the Japan Socialist Party?

Kingston describes the US-Japan Security Treaty Protests as pivotal for JSP. What was the "backlash" about?

What role did Prime Minsiter Kishi and then Ikeda play?

How did the LDP expand its power base?

What was the dokken-kokka or Construction State?

How was the Environment impacted?

How did LDP Maverick PM Koizumi Junichiro (2001-2006) respond to all this?

What was the 1970 "Pollution Diet"?

In the 1950s the Chisso Corporation caused severe Mercury Poisoning in Minamata Bay (Kyushu). How/when was that finally resolved?

What happened to the tone of early postwar radical protesting?

What were some of the Corruption Scandals in the 1980s-1990s?

How did the LDP and the Diet respond? How did Electoral Reforms progess?

The Changing Logic of Japanese Politics

According to [Gerald] Curtis, what were the four crucial pillars supporting the 1955 System?

By 1994 did ideologicsl divides between the Parties even matter anymore?

What did the JSP do and with what results?

What impact did the Bursting of the Bubble and the Lost Decade of the 1990s have on "Japan, Inc."?

PM Koizumi served 6 years in office then lots of very short term PMs.

What about Abe Shinzo (2012-2020)? How did his "AbeNomics" fare?

How about empowering women? How was is popularity?

Abe was very conservative and hoped to Revise Article 9 and Reform Education to make it more "Patriotic." How did those ideas fare?

Koizumi and Abe visited Yasukuni Shrine regularly. Why is that controversial?

Note: July 8, 2022 ex-PM Abe shot and killed in Nara City, Japan at a political rally. First PM or ex-PM assassinated since 2-26-1936!

Reason?

Abe and his family had ties to the Unification Church (associatied with Sun Myung Moon) which scammed the assassin's mother out of money and home.