The politics of Japan are conducted in a framework of a dominant-party bicameral parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy. A hereditary monarch, currently Emperor Naruhito, serves as head of state while the Prime Minister of Japan, currently Shigeru Ishiba since 2024, serves as the elected head of government.
The Liberal Democratic Party, frequently abbreviated to LDP or Jimintō (自民党), is a major conservative and nationalist political party in Japan. Since its foundation in 1955, the LDP has been in power almost continuously—a period called the 1955 System—except between 1993 and 1994, and again from 2009 to 2012.
Mikio Aoki was a Japanese politician who served as the Chief Cabinet Secretary from 1999 to 2000, and was briefly acting prime minister following Keizō Obuchi's coma. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), he also served as the Chairman of the LDP in the House of Councillors.
Shinzo Abe was a Japanese statesman and conservative politician who served as the prime minister of Japan and president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. He was the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history, serving for almost nine years in total. Abe also served as Chief Cabinet Secretary from 2005 to 2006 under Junichiro Koizumi and was briefly the opposition leader in 2012.
House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on July 29, 2007. The date was originally to be July 22, but the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) decided in mid-June to extend the session of the House for a week to finish up legislative business; this step was criticised due to the short-term delay.
Fumio Kyūma is a Japanese politician who was a member of the Diet of Japan between 1980 and 2009. Kyuma graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1964 and worked for the Ministry of Agriculture. He was elected to the Nagasaki Prefectural Assembly in 1971 serving three terms before being elected to the Diet as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for Nagasaki Number 2.
The Minister of Defense, or Bōei-shō (防衛相), is a member of the Japanese cabinet and is the leader of the Japanese Ministry of Defense, the executive department of the Japanese Armed Forces. The minister of defense’s position of command and authority over the military is second only to that of the Prime Minister of Japan, who is the commander-in-chief.
Norihiko Akagi is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet.
Masatoshi Wakabayashi was a Japanese politician who was a member of Liberal Democratic Party.
Kazunori Tanaka is a Japanese politician serving in the House of Representatives in the Diet as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party and Minister of Reconstruction. A native of Toyoura District, Yamaguchi and graduate of Hosei University he was elected for the first time in 1996 after serving in local assemblies. Tanaka was elected seven times in Kanagawa, prefecture 10th district Tanaka is general director of the Liberal Democratic Party International bureau in 2015.
Events in the year 2007 in Japan.
Factions are an accepted part of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the ruling party of Japan, which began with eight formal factions when it was first formed by merger in 1955. A political faction may be defined as a sub-group within a larger organization. While factions characterize other political parties in Pacific Asia, Japanese factionalism is distinguished by its stability and institutionalization. Although factions reconstitute themselves from time to time, the habatsu active today can be traced back to their 1955 roots, a testament to the stability and institutionalized nature of Liberal Democratic Party factions.
Shinjirō Koizumi is a Japanese politician who served as the Minister of the Environment from September 2019 to October 2021. He also serves as a Member of the House of Representatives for the Liberal Democratic Party. He is the second son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and the younger brother of actor Kotaro Koizumi.
General elections were held in Japan on 22 October 2017. Voting took place in all Representatives constituencies of Japan – 289 single-member districts and eleven proportional blocks – in order to appoint all 465 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the then 707-member bicameral National Diet of Japan. Incumbent Prime Minister Shinzō Abe's governing coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Komeito party retained their seats in signs of what was perceived as weak opposition. Abe won his fourth term in office and held on to the two-thirds supermajority in order to implement policies on revising the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution.
The Second Abe Cabinet governed Japan under the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe from December 2012 to December 2014. Following the return to power of the LDP in the 2012 general election, Abe, as party president, was elected Prime Minister by the National Diet on December 26, 2012, and presented his cabinet for swearing in by the Emperor later that day. Abe formed a coalition with the New Komeito Party, which has partnered with the LDP since the late 1990s, appointing former leader Akihiro Ota as Minister of Land. Together the two parties controlled a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives, allowing the new government in most matters to override the veto of the upper house which was controlled by the opposition parties until July 2013.
The Third Abe cabinet governed Japan under the leadership of the prime minister, Shinzō Abe, from December 2014 to November 2017. The government was a coalition between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito and controlled both the upper and lower houses of the National Diet.
The Fourth Abe Cabinet governed Japan under the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe from November 2017 to September 2020. The government is a coalition between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito and controls both the upper and lower houses of the National Diet.
A presidential election was held on 20 September 2018 to elect the next president of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan for a new 3-year term. Incumbent president Shinzo Abe was running for re-election after a rule change in 2017 that allowed him to run for a third term.
The 2020 Liberal Democratic Party of Japan presidential election was triggered by Shinzo Abe's announcement on 28 August 2020 that he would resign as President of the Liberal Democratic Party and Prime Minister of Japan, citing a relapse of his colitis. Voting took place on 14 September 2020 to elect the next president of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, three days before the National Diet was scheduled to hold a session to elect the new prime minister. Initially scheduled to be held in September 2021, incumbent LDP president and the longest-serving Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, suddenly resigned on 28 August 2020, citing recent health concerns, prompting an election to select the President to serve the rest of Abe's term.
The 2021 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election was held on 29 September 2021 to elect the next President of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and Prime Minister of Japan. Fumio Kishida was elected to lead the party and assumed the premiership on 4 October. He led the party into the 2021 Japanese general election.
