Anticommunism in the Development of Japan’s Postwar Ruling Party

It may seem like a foregone conclusion that anti-communism played a definitive part in the creation and identity of the Liberal Democratic Party, the center-right political party which enjoyed a record of uninterrupted political incumbency in Japan from 1955 to 1993. However, this premise must be interrogated for a number of reasons. Furthermore, it is important to consider the particular form in which anti-communism featured in the ruling party’s ideas and as rhetoric. This paper utilizes two approaches to analyze the significance of anti-communism in the LDP’s postwar conservatism. First, it examines the LDP’s official documents and public statements to reevaluate the party’s institutional ethos and the place of anti-communism within it. Second, the project looks at anti-communism within the thought of LDP leaders, as the LDP has been characterized as a factionalized party in which the personalistic influence of individual bosses was especially potent. In particular, this study focuses on Sato Eisaku, who played a pivotal role in the early development of the LDP and was the longest-serving party leader and prime minister during this period. This project sheds light on questions such as the Japanese government’s place within the global Cold War, anti-communism as an element of Japan’s Cold War-era party system, and the LDP’s ties with the Unification Church, which has become a source of controversy in Japanese public discourse.