Abstract
In Japanese, the opposition is known as 'mannen yatou', or 'one thousand year opposition party'. As this phrase testifies, there is a structural incapacity of the opposition parties to get into power. It refers to all the political parties that are not in power, that is to say, every party except the Liberal Democrats or LDP. To be more precise, it refers to the Japanese Socialist Party, the Democratic Socialist Party, the Komeito (centre party), and the Japan Communist Party. 1947-1948 was the only period before 1993, when a coalition cabinet was made of Socialist, Democrats, and Cooperative party ministers, lead by the leader of the JSP, Katayama Tetsu. Therefore the LDP maintained its political majority in the Lower House for more than forty five years in a row. Only in 1993 did a non-LDP coalition came in power in the Lower House under Prime Minister Hosokawa. Made up of eight parties, the coalition stayed in power for ten months and eleven days.
