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The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), also known as Jiyu Minshuto (自由民主党, more often abbreviated to Jimin-to 自民党) is the largest Japanese political party as of 2004. It is not to be confused with the now-defunct Liberal Party (1998), which merged with the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, in November 2003.

The Liberal Democratic party is Japan's largest right-wing and conservative party.

1 History

The LDP was formed in 1955 as a party merger between Japan's two oppositional parties, the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party , both right-wing conservative parties - as a united front against the then very popular Japan Socialist Party. The party immediately won the elections, and Japan's first conservative government with a majority was formed by 1955. It would hold the majority government until 1993.

The LDP began with reforming Japan's foreign affairs, ranging from entry into the United Nations to establishing diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union. Its leaders in the 1950s also made the LDP the main government party, and in all the elections of the 1950s, the LDP won the majority vote, with the only other opposition coming from the left-wing, made up of the Japan Socialist Party and the Japanese Communist PartyJapanese Communist Party Party President Shii Kazuo Secretary General Tadayoshi Ichida Founded 1921 Headquarters 4-26-7 Sendagaya Shibuya-ku Tokyo 151-8586 Japan Representatives 9 Councillors 9 Political ideology communist Website The Japanese Communist P.

From the 1950s through the 1970s, the American Central Intelligence AgencyThis article is about the foreign intelligence service of the United States of America. For other uses of the term CIA see CIA (disambiguation . The Central Intelligence Agency CIA is the United States' foreign intelligence agency, responsible for obtaini spent millions of dollars attempting to influence elections in Japan to favor the LDP against more leftist, less pro-American parties, such as the Socialists and the Communists, although this was not revealed until the mid-1990s when The New York TimesThe New York Times is an internationally influential daily newspaper published in New York City, New York, and distributed worldwide. Overview Nicknamed "The Gray Lady" or The Times the newspaper was founded as The New-York Daily Times in 1851 by Henry J. exposed it. Therefore it is speculated that the party's long-term power was at least partly as a result of these Cold WarThe Cold War (c. 1945- 1991) was the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between groups of nations practicing different ideologies and political systems. On one side was the Soviet Union and its allies, often referred to as the E operations to manipulate Japanese government.

For the majority of the 1960s, the LDP (and Japan) were led by Eisaku SatoNixon for the repatriation of Okinawa. Eisaku Sato (; Sato Eisaku March 27, 1901 June 3, 1975) was a Japanese politician and the 61st, 62nd and 63rd Prime Minister of Japan, elected on November 9, 1964, and re-elected on February 17, 1967 and January 14,, which began with the hosting of the Olympics in Japan in 1964Events January January 1 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. January 3 Senator Barry Goldwater announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for President. January 5 In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Ort, and ending in 19721972 is a leap year starting on Saturday (click link for calendar). Events January events January 2 the Pierre Hotel Heist Six men rob the safety deposit boxes of the Pierre Hotel in New York City. Loot is at least $4 million January 5 President of the Un with Japanese neutrality in the Vietnam War and also with the beginning of the Miracle Economy . By the end of the 1970s, the LDP went into its decline, where, even though it held the reigns of government, many scandals plagued the party, where the opposition (now joined with the Clean Government Party (Former)) gained a tiny amount of momentum.

In the end of the 1970s, the Japan Socialist Party, the Japanese Communist Party, and the Clean Government Party, and also the international community all elected major pressure to have Japan switch diplomatic ties to the People's Republic of China from the Republic of China. During the 1980s, the LDP was responsible for Japan's unprecendeted economic growth, and the Bubble Economy. In the end of the decade, Japan also played a pivotal role in ending the Cold War.

But by 1993, the end of the miracle economy and other reasons made the LDP lose that year's election. The winners, made up of opposition parties, formed a government under the liberal Japan Renewal Party . Other junior coalition partners were the existing opposition parties (the Clean Government Party, the Japanese Communist Party, and the Japan Socialist Party) as well as two party, the New Party Sakigake and the New Frontier Party. But the Socialists, Communists, and the New Party Sakigake parties were neglected in the coalition, and even though the Communists went through it, the Socialists and New Party Sakigake thus left the ruling coalition, joining the LDP in the opposition.

By 1994, the liberal parties in the ruling coalition failed to form a majority, and the Japan Socialist Party won the election, thus the LDP was returned to the ruling parties, even though it was a junior coalition partner.

By 1996, the LDP was returned to the largest, ruling party. The Japanese Communist Party, the Japan Socialist Party, which was renamed the Social Democratic Party (Japan), and the Clean Government Party, as well as other several minor parties (the New Frontier Party, Japan New Party and the Japan Renewal Party all dissolved) went into opposition, while the New Party Sakigake was part of the ruling coalition.

After 1996, when the LDP returned to power, the party was practically unopposed until 1998, when the oppositional liberal Democratic Party was formed. Since then the opposition has been gaining momentum, especially in the 2003 and 2004 Parliamentary Elections. But the LDP is still in power, and the largest party.

On November 10, 2003, the New Conservative Party (Hoshu Shinto) was absorbed into the LDP, a move which was largely because of the New Conservative Party's failiure to win 5 seats (it won 4).

Today, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is from this party. He has sent troops to Iraq, and dissolved the Lower House. The LDP is in a coalition with the conservative Buddhist New Clean Government Party. So far, the LDP is still the largest party. New Party Sakigake (which had changed its name to Sakigake) was in the coalition until 2002, when the party dissolved itself and formed the Midori no Kaigi, an ecologist party, which has no seats in the Diet, which unofficially supported the government, but dissolved itself. Now, the LDP and New Komeito Party (New Clean Government Party) make up the ruling coalition.

The LDP gains most of its support from rural conservative farmers, and it is also the established party of the bureaucracy, and the famed zaibatsu and white-collar workers. The LDP is also almost always ridden with scandals, usually when political bosses take money from white-collar bureaucrats.

In the dramatically paced 2003 House of Representatives elections, the LDP won 237 seats, while the DPJ won 177 seats. In the 2004 House of Councillors elections, in the seats up for grabs, the LDP won 49 seats and the DPJ 50, though in the end, the LDP still had a total of 114. Because of this electoral loss, former Secretary General Shinzo Abe turned in his resignation, but Party President Koizumi merely demoted him in rank, and he was replaced by Tsutomu Takebe .

The LDP's pictorial logo is two children under a sun.

On domestic policy the party is conservative. It supports privatization of all industries. The party is the most right-wing and conservative party in Japan, and is still the most popular.