ABSTRACT
Japan is characterized as having a unique political culture due to its long period of single-party dominance. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has dominated the Japanese political scene as a single party or as part of a ruling coalition for most of the postwar period. Its long-term dominance for 38 consecutive years is often called “the 1955 regime,” a party system with the LDP as the ruling party and the Japan Socialist Party in opposition until the 1993 general election. Although the political situation has been extremely fluid since then, the LDP remains the party in power as the head of the ruling coalition.
