Political and Psychological Correlates of Japanese Political Party Preference

• Author: Yasumasa Kuroda
• Published date: 01 March 1964
• Date: 01 March 1964
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591296401700105
• Subject Matter: Articles

POLITICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES
OF JAPANESE POLITICAL PARTY PREFERENCE
YASUMASA KURODA
Montana State College and University of Denver
HE
KINDS OF DOCTRINE, values, and personality which voters of dif-
ferent party preferences have, is worthy of consideration by political scientists
who are interested in the role of parties in the decision-making process. It is
the purpose of this study to examine some of the political and psychological corre-
lates of political party preference found among Japanese law students in 1960.
A
survey of Japanese law students, on the political socialization of future politi-
cal leaders, which is part of a cross-cultural survey being carried out at the Institute
for Community Studies, University of Oregon, was conducted in the early part of
1960 in cooperation with the Department of Sociology, University of Tokyo.’ For
the analysis, a sample was chosen on the basis of data collected on three schools indi-
cating their trend in securing politically important students. These schools were the
University of Tokyo, the University of Kyoto, and the Legal Research and Training
Institute. The sample included 260 University of Tokyo students, 113 University
of Kyoto students, and 290 second-year Institute trainees.2
2
Only in the light of Japanese party history can the analysis of the survey be most
meaningful, and with this in mind, a brief factual description is in order at this point.3
Like many other Western ideas and institutions that were imported during the nine-
teenth century, the notion of political parties reached the shores of Japan in the early
1870’s. A
number of parties were established, not on the basis of ideological cleavage,
but on the basis of geography, clan, and personal loyalty. Although small in num-
ber and weak, there were some followers of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, and other propo-
nents of left-wing ideologies. The rise of military power in the 1930’s put an end to
the growth of political parties in Japan. All political parties were dissolved in 1940,
presumably on a voluntary basis, in order to maximize the war efforts. Such an event
is unthinkable in the Western democratic nations which have long been character-
ized by a stable parliamentary democracy in which political parties play a decisive
role. The parties in the West have strong roots in functionally organized groups such
as labor unions.
After the upheaval of the postwar period, two major parties came into existence,
built more on the differences in political ideology as understood in the West. They
continue in existence today under their original names of the Liberal-Democratic
1
This survey is a part of a cross-national study under the direction of Professors Robert Agger
and Marshall Goldstein of the University of Oregon and in collaboration with Professor
Daniel Goldrich of Michigan State University.
2
For more detailed report on the sampling see my unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, "Political
Socialization: Personal Political Orientation of Law Students in Japan," University of
Oregon, 1962, Microfilm Order No. 62-2065, Dissertation Abstracts, Vol. XXII, No. 12,
Part 1, June 1962, p. 4397.
3
Introductory books dealing with Japanese politics include Yoshitake Oka (ed.), Gendai Nihon
no Seiji Katei [The Political Process of Contemporary Japan] (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1958) ;
Nobutake Ike, Japanese Politics (New York: Knopf, 1957) ; Robert A. Scalapino and
Junnosuke Masumi, Parties and Politics in Contemporary Japan (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1962).
47

---

48
party and the Socialist party. The former is the ruling conservative party with a
majority in the Diet, while the latter maintains slightly over one-third of the seats in
the Diet and acts as the major opposition party to the Liberal-Democrats.
The reconstruction after World War II, accompanied by further urbanization
and the development of various social organizations, seems to have brought about a
differentiation in political philosophy. The cleavage now is between those who assert
conservative doctrines and traditional Japanese values and those who advocate so-
cialistic doctrines and the use of government as the major vehicle for progress. These
polarized interests are represented by the Liberal-Democratic party, supported by
businessmen, self-employed persons, corporation executives, farmers, service workers,
and older folk in...