Political Research Council

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The Political Research Council is a body in Japanese parties that controls internal party policy formulation and works on draft laws in cooperation with parliamentary committees and ministries . In a narrower sense, the political research council is a body of the long ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the seimu-chōsakai ( Japanese 政務 調査 会 , seichōkai for short ; English Policy Affairs Research Council , PARC for short ). Similar institutions exist under different names in all national parties.

The chairman of the political research council is usually counted among the inner circle of leaders of the party, at the LDP he belongs to the "three party offices" alongside the general secretary and the chairman of the executive council . The council itself is divided into sub-committees, which are in turn chaired by a chairman, according to the departments in the cabinet . The members are often industry MPs with close ties to the ministerial bureaucracy.

In German, the political research council is alternatively referred to as “political research committee”, “political planning committee”, “political research council”, “council for political questions”, with the English name or its translation as “research committee for political affairs”.

Liberal Democratic Party

In the decades of government of the LDP, the Political Research Council was a symbol of the party's close ties with the ministerial bureaucracy and the economy, the so-called Iron Triangle . Until the LDP's first brief loss of power in the early 1990s, a strict system of parliamentary seniority (measured by the number of re-elections as members of parliament) applied to the chairmanship of the Research Council and its sub-committees.

Democratic Party

In the Democratic Party , which ruled from 2009 to 2012 , the political research council, seisaku chōsakai ( 政策 調査 会 ), was abolished in 2009. The party avowedly tried to reduce the influence of the ministerial bureaucracy. Party leader Naoto Kan reintroduced the council in 2010.

Socialist Party of Japan

In the Socialist Party of Japan (SPJ), which was the largest opposition party until the 1990s, the political research council was called seisaku shingikai ( 政策 審議 会 , roughly "political advisory committee"). In the case of the small successor party SDP , the name of the body was retained.

Other parties

The names of the Political Research Council in other nationally represented parties are:

  • Kōmeitō : (chūō kanjikai) seimu chōsakai ( （中央 幹事 会） 政務 調査 会 , for example "Political Research Council (of the Central Board)")
  • Communist Party of Japan : (chūō iinkai) seisaku iinkai ( （中央 委員会） 政策 委員会 , for example "Political Committee (of the Central Committee)")
  • New People's Party : seimu chōsakai ( 政務 調査 会 )
  • Minna no Tō : seisaku chōsakai ( 政策 調査 会 )
  • Shintō Kaikaku : seichōkai ( 政 調 会 )