Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
powerful party that generally pulled in the opposition direction, it clearly had
to learn along a bumpy road of realpolitik. Out of power in August 2009, and
with the loss of one-third of its Lower House candidates, it was forced to re-
evaluate itself as a party.
During the 10 years of coalition politics, Komeito moved from being a
party that primarily championed welfare, to a party that had to make deci-
sions concerning a complex world situation involving a series of national and
global impasses surrounding the 2003 invasion of Iraq (see
Chapter 3
). The
LDP, as the party traditionally representative of big business and a close
relationship with the USA, had by 2009 moved somewhat closer to Komeito
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s
stress on the reality of people
s needs and livelihood. This moderation of the
LDP can only be attributed to the presence of Komeito, particularly on con-
stitutional issues (Hardacre 2005). According to Komeito, however, they were
continuously reminded during those 10 years that as a party in power, politics
is never simply about proposing sound policies, but very much about good
communication and building up of trustful human relationships that ensure
policies come to fruition. It is also clear that change usually takes a long time.
The child-allowance subsidy programme from which many families now bene
'
t
has its roots in a programme developed by Komeito in the 1960s.
However, two bigger problems remained for Komeito by 2009. While the
party lobbied for policies to improve welfare and in
uenced the LDP in a
variety of ways over the 10 years as a coalition partner, it also found itself in a
position where it had to make grave decisions and give in to the demands of
the LDP. First,
'
s
emphasis on liberalising markets became a focal point in the 2009 election.
The other was the highly controversial Iraq invasion and the employment of
Self-Defence Forces to that country. These two issues are discussed in
Chapter
5.
Media reports at the time interpreted Komeito and its supporters to have
fallen more in line with the LDP, as having become more right-wing, evidence
of which was found in its compromised policy position. By the 2009 Lower
House election, Komeito had found itself in partnership with what was
referred to as a
the economic disparity seen as the e
ect of Koizumi
(shizumu fune). While the coalition would
always be an unnatural union in the sense that the LDP and Komeito clearly
di
'
sinking ship
'
er in terms of philosophical basis and political stance, and in the way they
represent di
erent voters, the two parties managed to institute a kind of
mechanism through which di
erent political voices could come together to
coordinate policy di
erences. Politicians from both parties developed a
custom to establish joint project teams, a task-force system, which would deal
with the various policy decisions that had to be made. Representatives from
each party were selected according to their particular area of expertise and a
number of such project teams would be taking place at any one time during
those 10 years. These groups were uno
cial as they were taking place at the
intra-party level, but were decisive in determining what turned into govern-
ment policy. Komeito saw these uno
cial groups as working well in every
field, such as education, pensions and welfare.
'
This was part of the process of
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