is a leading
faction
Faction or factionalism may refer to:
Politics
* Political faction, a group of people with a common political purpose
* Free and Independent Faction, a Romanian political party
* Faction (''Planescape''), a political faction in the game ''Planes ...
within Japan's
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), founded by bureaucrat-turned-politician
Ikeda Hayato
was a Japanese bureaucrat and later politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1960 to 1964. He is best known for his Income Doubling Plan, which promised to double Japan's gross domestic product, GDP in ten years.
Ikeda is also kno ...
in 1957. Currently headed by Japanese prime minister
Fumio Kishida
is a Japanese politician serving as Prime Minister of Japan and president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2021. A member of the House of Representatives, he previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2017 and ...
, it has produced five prime ministers (Ikeda,
Masayoshi Ōhira
was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1978 to 1980. Ōhira's time in office was cut short when he died in office; he remains the most recent Japanese Prime Minister to die in office.
Early life
Masayoshi Ōhira was bo ...
,
Zenkō Suzuki
was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1980 to 1982. He was the last prime minister to have been born in the Meiji era.
Early life and education
Suzuki was born on 11 January 1911, Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, the eldest ...
,
Kiichi Miyazawa
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1991 to 1993. He was a member of the National Diet of Japan for over 50 years.
Early life and education
Miyazawa was born into a wealthy, politically active family in Fukuyama ...
, and Kishida), two LDP presidents (
Yōhei Kōno
is a Japanese politician and a former President of the Liberal Democratic Party. He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from November 2003 until August 2009, when the LDP lost its majority in the 2009 election. Kōno served as sp ...
and
Sadakazu Tanigaki
is a Japanese politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1983 to 2016, as Minister of Finance from 2003 to 2006, as President of the Liberal Democratic Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2009 to 2012, as Minist ...
), and a large number of cabinet officeholders.
One of the most moderate factions within the conservative LDP, the Kōchikai faction has typically supported a dovish foreign policy, including diplomatic engagement, preservation of
Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution
is a clause in the national Constitution of Japan outlawing war as a means to settle international disputes involving the state. The Constitution came into effect on 3 May 1947, following World War II. In its text, the state formally renounces th ...
forbidding Japan from having a military, and close
relations with the United States. In terms of domestic policy, Kōchikai has tended to support moderate efforts to combat income inequality and expand or strengthen the social safety net in ways consistent with fostering economic growth. Among the interest groups in the LDP's base, the Kōchikai faction tends to draw support from government bureaucrats, big business organizations, white-collar workers and other urban professionals, and small business owners.
Kōchikai supports "
modified capitalism" (a
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
form of
Keynesian
Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output and ...
economic policy), and unlike other LDP factions, has a weak
socially conservative
Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institution ...
nature. Kōchikai represents the most
moderate nationalism
Moderate nationalism is a moderate version of nationalism. It is less demanding than classical nationalism and has several subtypes such as civic nationalism (also known as liberal nationalism). Moderate nationalism is similar to patriotism, al ...
of the right-wing nationalist LDP's major factions, and is therefore considered a "liberal" faction within the LDP.
History
Kōchikai was founded in 1957 by
Hayato Ikeda
was a Japanese bureaucrat and later politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1960 to 1964. He is best known for his Income Doubling Plan, which promised to double Japan's GDP in ten years.
Ikeda is also known for repairing U.S.-J ...
as he prepared to contest against his rivals for
Liberal Democratic Party leadership and the premiership itself. Originally, it was modeled on a
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
, and was initially called the "Kōchikai Policy Study Group" (宏池会政策研究会). The name ''Kōchikai'' ("Broad Pond Society") was given to the group by right-wing power broker
Masahiro Yasuoka
was a Japanese scholar of yangmingism who, through his philosophy, reportedly exerted considerable influence on many Japanese politicians, including postwar prime ministers of Japan. He has been considered a backroom power broker or eminence g ...
, and was taken from a line from the
Eastern Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
poet
Ma Rong: "Let's go lie in the pavilion on the hill, and gaze at the broad pond." It was also a pun on Ikeda's surname, which means "rice field by the pond."
Early members of the group tended to be bureaucrats or ex-bureaucrats drawn from the ranks of government ministries and included, in addition to Ikeda himself,
Masayoshi Ōhira
was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1978 to 1980. Ōhira's time in office was cut short when he died in office; he remains the most recent Japanese Prime Minister to die in office.
Early life
Masayoshi Ōhira was bo ...
,
Shigesaburō Maeo
was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who served as Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Liberal Democratic Party from 1961 to 1964, and was the 58th Speaker of the House of Representatives (Japan), Speaker of the House ...
,
Osamu Shimomura
was a Japanese organic chemist and marine biologist, and Professor Emeritus at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Boston University School of Medicine. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for th ...
,
Zentarō Kosaka
was a Japanese politician who served two terms as foreign minister and as labour minister.
Early life and education
Hailing from Nagano Prefecture, Kosaka was born into a politician family on 23 January 1912. His grandfather, Zennosuke Kosaka, ...
, and
Kiichi Miyazawa
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1991 to 1993. He was a member of the National Diet of Japan for over 50 years.
Early life and education
Miyazawa was born into a wealthy, politically active family in Fukuyama ...
. In the early years, the group was nicknamed Ikeda's "brain trust" (''burēn''), and played a key role in formulating the
Income Doubling Plan
The was a long-term economic development plan initiated by Japanese prime minister Hayato Ikeda in the fall of 1960. The plan called for doubling the size of Japan's economy in ten years through a combination of tax breaks, targeted investment, a ...
that propelled Ikeda to electoral victory in the
1960 general election and two terms as prime minister. During the Ikeda years, Kōchikai published policy papers by group members in the group's monthly in-house journal .
Following Ikeda's death in 1965, headship of the faction passed to Maeo, but as
Eisaku Satō
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister from 1964 to 1972. He is the third-longest serving Prime Minister, and ranks second in longest uninterrupted service as Prime Minister.
Satō entered the National Diet in 1949 as a membe ...
won four consecutive terms as prime minister, younger members of the faction became dissatisfied with Maeo's leadership and finally voted him out in favor of Ōhira, in what became known as the "Ōhira coup" of 1971. Under Ōhira's adroit leadership, the faction grew rapidly. As Ōhira recruited new members, the percentage of Kōchikai members who were ex-bureaucrats gradually declined, reaching a new low of only 40 percent of the faction in 1979, and continuing to decline thereafter.
Ōhira's sudden death in 1980, while still in office as prime minister, left both headship of Kōchikai and the premiership itself in the hands of faction member
Zenkō Suzuki
was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1980 to 1982. He was the last prime minister to have been born in the Meiji era.
Early life and education
Suzuki was born on 11 January 1911, Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, the eldest ...
. Suzuki declined to run for reelection as LDP party head in 1982, ending his stint as prime minister, but remained head of the Kōchikai faction until 1986, at which time he relinquished headship to Miyazawa as part of a broader strategic effort to unseat prime minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party from 1982 to 1987. He was a member of the House of Representatives for more than 50 years. He was best known for pushing through the ...
.
Miyazawa was powerful enough to become prime minister in 1991, but his policy objectives were consistently thwarted by a rival LDP faction led by
Noboru Takeshita
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1987 to 1989 during the bubble economy.
Takeshita led the largest faction at the time in the Liberal Democratic Party, which he inherited from Kakuei Tanaka, from the 1980s ...
, until finally a schism within the Takeshita faction brought down Miyazawa's government and handed power to the opposition parties in 1993. However, Miyazawa remained head of Kōchikai, and in 1994 helped engineer the LDP's return to power after a brief interregnum. This made Kōchikai powerful enough to have Kōchikai member
Yōhei Kōno
is a Japanese politician and a former President of the Liberal Democratic Party. He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from November 2003 until August 2009, when the LDP lost its majority in the 2009 election. Kōno served as sp ...
elected LDP party president. However, in 1998, a fierce battle broke out between Kōno and fellow Kōchikai member
Kōichi Katō over who would succeed Miyazawa as head of Kōchikai, in what became known as the "KK War." Both men undermined each other, and although Katō ultimately "won" the war to become Kōchikai head, he became the first head of Kōchikai since Maeo not to become prime minister, and Kōno became the first LDP president ever not to become prime minister.
The chaos caused by the vicious KK War and later schisms left Kōchikai weakened under the next two faction heads,
Mitsuo Horiuchi
was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Misaka, Yamanashi
Map of former Misaka Town
was a town located in Higashiyatsushiro Distri ...
(2001-2006) and
Makoto Koga
is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature) and formerly Minister of Transport. A native of Setaka, Fukuoka and graduate of Nihon University, he was elect ...
(2006-2012). However, the faction still remained powerful enough to play a
kingmaker
A kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence on a royal or political succession, without themselves being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious and military means to influence the succession. Origina ...
role by throwing its support to one candidate or another. For example, when
Shinzō Abe
Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍 晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...
resigned from his first stint as prime minister in 2007, Kōchikai's support proved decisive in handing the premiership to
Yasuo Fukuda
is a former Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2007 to 2008. He was previously the longest-serving Chief Cabinet Secretary in Japanese history, serving in that role from 2000 to 2004 under Prime Ministers Yoshirō M ...
instead of heavy favorite
Tarō Asō
is a Japanese politician serving as the Vice President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2021. Asō previously served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2008 to 2009 and as Deputy Prime Minister of Japan and Minister of Finance from 2 ...
.
Kōchikai's fortunes began to revive under Koga's handpicked successor,
Fumio Kishida
is a Japanese politician serving as Prime Minister of Japan and president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2021. A member of the House of Representatives, he previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2017 and ...
, a party deep insider whose father and grandfather had both served in the Diet and who had held a series of cabinet posts in both Abe administrations and the Fukuda administration. A moderate who could win support from across the party, Kishida defeated maverick lawmaker
Tarō Kōno
is a Japanese politician serving as the Minister of Digital Affairs of Japan since August 2022. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he previously served as Minister for Administrative Reform and Regulatory Reform from 2015 to 2016 and fro ...
in the party presidential election in September 2021.
Kōchikai faction heads
''Faction heads who became prime minister are in bold.''
See also
*
The Asahi Shimbun
is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...
*
Third way
The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of centre-right economic policies with centre-left social policies. The Third Way was born from a ...
*
Republican Governance Group - moderate faction of the Republican Party in the United States
*
One Nation Conservatives (caucus)
The One Nation Conservatives is a UK parliamentary caucus of Conservative Party Members of Parliament who identify as one-nation conservatives.
History
In March 2019, the caucus was formed by a group of between 40 and 50 Conservative MPs. N ...
- centrist faction of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom
References
Citations
Sources cited
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*
*
External links
Kōchikai faction website{{Liberal Democratic Party of Japan
Political party factions in Japan
1957 establishments in Japan
Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)
Liberal conservatism