New Liberal Club

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The New Liberal Club ( Japanese 新 自由 ク ラ ブ , Shin jiyū kurabu ) was a moderately conservative political party in Japan . It existed from its establishment by former MPs of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 1976 to 1986, when it dissolved and the remaining members returned to the LDP. Under Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro (LDP) he was involved in a coalition government from 1983 to 1986.

history

In the wake of the Lockheed scandal surrounding former LDP party leader and Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei , six MPs from predominantly urban constituencies left the LDP in the summer of 1976, including Shūgiin MPs Kōno Yōhei , Tagawa Seiichi , Nishioka Takeo and Yamaguchi Toshio , and founded the new one Liberal club to achieve a "renewal of conservative politics" ( 保守 政治 の 刷新 , hoshu seiji no sasshin ).

In the 1976 Shūgiin election in December, the New Liberal Club won 17 seats. In polls, he temporarily ranked third behind the LDP and SPJ . In 1979 he fell back to four seats, but was able to recover to twelve seats in the new elections in 1980 . With the Shakai-minshu rengō ("Social Democratic League") from Den Hideo , which emerged from moderate socialists in 1977, the New Liberal Club founded a joint parliamentary group in 1981, which existed until September 1983.

In the 1983 Shūgiin election , which was influenced by the trial of Tanaka Kakuei over the Lockheed scandal, the LDP lost its absolute majority. Nakasone Yasuhiro formed a coalition with the New Liberal Club, which was represented in the new cabinet with its chairman Tagawa Seiichi as "Minister of Self-Government" and head of the National Public Security Commission. The sole government of the LDP was interrupted for the first time in 28 years.

In 1984 Kōno Yōhei took over the party chairmanship again, after a cabinet reshuffle, the New Liberal Club received the Ministry of Labor, and from 1985 the authority for science and technology. In 1985 the New Liberal Club pushed through with Nakasone to maintain the limit of defense spending in Japan to one percent of gross domestic product, decided by the Miki cabinet in 1976. (The limit was lifted in 1987 but has not been significantly exceeded to this day.)

In the 1986 Shūgiin election , the party fell back to six mandates, while the LDP at the same time won back a clear absolute majority and was therefore no longer dependent on a coalition partner. In August after the election, the New Liberal Club disbanded and its MPs, with the exception of Tagawa Seiichi, joined the LDP.

aftermath

Like his father Ichirō, Kōno Yōhei rose to a leading politician in the LDP in the post-war period. When the LDP lost not only its parliamentary majority but also its participation in the government in 1993 by withdrawing from the party, the Kōno, who was considered reform-oriented, was elected LDP chairman . A year later he brought the LDP back into government through a coalition with its traditional main competitor, the Socialist Party of Japan.

Party leader

Web links

literature

  • Louis D. Hayes: Introduction to Japanese Politics , 4th Edition, 2005. P. 83: The New Liberal Club.
  • Ronald J. Hrebenar: Political Party Proliferation: The New Liberal Club and the Mini-Parties . In: Ronald J. Hrebenar, Peter Berton (Eds.): The Japanese Party System , Westview Press, Boulder 1992, pp. 211-222.
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Nakasone is the family name, Yasuhiro the first name.