In Japan, the long-term ruling LDP party has once again managed to stay in power – with simple messages and authoritarian tendencies.
D he age-old recipe of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan with a few brief interruptions since 1955, has worked once again: replace the leader so that voters forget your (financial) scandals, then power can be regained.
Die LDP in place in the sira Takaychi im Oktober zur zurbecause the right wing saw her as the only possible heir to nationalist Shinzo Abe. It should win back the voters lost to right-wing populists. The calculation worked out perfectly: according to initial projections, Takaichi may have won more mandates than Abe in his heyday.
Japan traditionally votes conservatively. The student rebellion of the 1960s changed nothing. Unlike in Germany, the establishment prevented the activists of the time from marching through the institutions. Japan’s rapidly aging society strengthened the tendency to persist.
The social tendency to remain silent and avoid conflict supported political stability. The opposition did not take advantage of the historic change of power in 2009 and was effective in its reactions to the financial crisis at the time and the Nuclear and tsunami disaster incompetent. That’s why the successors of the then Democratic Party still don’t get their foot on the ground today.
Many voters will regret it
Takaichi’s landslide victory is also explained by the fact that Japan is following the trend in Western democracies towards inward-looking nationalism with a strong leader. Voters choose populists like Donald Trump or Sanae Takaichi because they are given the feeling that this leader will do something about the problems, be it inflation, low wages, etc immigration.
The election campaign is being conducted via social media with simple emotional messages. The ultra-conservative attitudes and authoritarian tendencies of these politicians are lost. Many voters will regret their enthusiasm for Takaichi.
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