Introduction

Thin clouds scudded across the autumn sky, and a northern wind brought a hint of rain and a promise of cold later in the afternoon to the campus of Chuo University. The students were out in force: they clustered in the paths, lined the windows and stood on the roofs of the dormitories, their eyes focused on the black limousines nudging their way through the crowds in front of the auditorium. Today was November 15, 1955, and all the important politicians of the nation were gathering to inaugurate formally a new conservative party — the Liberal Democratic party.

Party workers were pinning peach-colored ribbons on the lapels of the Dietmen to single them out from the rest of the people. But there was little need for this special attention. The students knew who most of the politicians were by sight. Look, over there is Ono Bamboku of the Liberal party! Ono had left his car and was pushing his way on foot up the stone steps, baleful eyes glaring under bushy white eyebrows, muttering through thick lips something that sounded like, "Damn students." And here comes Miki Bukichi of the Democratic party! Miki, as usual, wore formal black Japanese robes and carried a thin cane, though all the other politicians were attired in business suits. Finally, Hatoyama Ichiro, the prime minister, arrived. He was slightly late because he had dawdled too long in his rose garden after lunch. With his arrival, the conference started, and the students began drifting away. They were more interested in the men than the event.

The Japanese have always placed greater stress on personality in government than they have on institutions. Indeed, the institution has often been little more than an extension of personality. As Robert K. Reischauer noted of the two original parties started in Japan in the 1880's:

... the Liberal Party and the Constitutional Progressive Party, were established by Itagaki and Okuma respectively because these gentlemen were angry at the way the samurai of Choshu and Satsuma were monopolizing all the good positions in the government. They used their parties as tools to pry open posts in the administration for themselves and their loyal henchmen.

Both Itagaki and Okuma had previously been part of that small elite which ruled Japan at the time the parties were formed. They had been maneuvered out and they wanted to get back. The formation of the parties was at least partly a tactic in an intra-elite fight for power and position of a sort which had characterized Japanese history over the centuries. If the fight between the government and the parties had hinged solely on personality and the right to rule, however, the parties might have been defeated and forgotten long ago.

Japan had been relatively isolated from the rest of t