Japanese imperialists disheartened by election results

Written by: (Contributed) on 5 August 2025

(A disheartened PM Shigeru Ishiba www.weeklytimesnow.com.au)

The spectacular collapse of support for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in recent elections in Japan can be attributed to two significant factors: their failure to identify important issues in domestic politics which include living standards for the mass of the population and an unresolved corruption scandal; their failure to act effectively with important foreign policy considerations which include tariffs and the Trump administration and increasing militarisation of the former pacifist country.

Japan has been governed since the mid-1950s by successive LDP administrations, apart from a few isolated instances. It has provided the political elite with a consolidation of long-term class and state power, and the ability of the US to use the country as a major hub for 'US interests' in the northern part of the vast Indo-Pacific region. In fact, the US-Japan alliance has been upgraded in recent years to be a formal global alliance; an illustration of the significance of the country for US-led defence and security provision. (1)

In recent elections, however, the ruling LDP lost control of the upper house, which followed their demise last October when they also lost control of the lower house. An official explanation about the election results has included reference to voters frustrated with price increases larger than wage offers from employers, and a younger generation who have regarded traditional leaders as ignoring them. (2)

Behind the scenes, however, a long-time corruption scandal haunts the traditional ruling elite of Japan. It carries all the hallmarks of unresolved business from yesteryear, with far-reaching implications for the present.

The assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe in July, 2022, shook Japan. The
traditionally conservative country has, since that time, had difficulty adapting to political affairs without reference to Shinzo Abe. The ruling LDP has continually floundered without his dominant role. The circumstances surrounding his assassination have also remained curious. The assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, confessed immediately after the killing, to long-held grudges against the Unification Church, of which Shinzo Abe retained some involvement. Later investigations established that the shadowy religious cult had a strong foothold inside the LDP. (3) The motives for the assassination are clouded in shades of grey.

What was not so well publicised, for example, was the linkage between the Church and its leader, the so-called Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and the World Anti-Communist League (WACL), later renamed the World League for Freedom and Democracy (WLFD). The two organisations were closely associated: established in the darker days of the previous Cold War in 1966, the WACL evolved from the Asian People's Anti-Communist League (APACL), which had been established by South Korean intelligence agents in collusion with their counterparts in Taiwan. (4)

An early WACL operation, soon after its founding, included moves to 'create in Japan a Korean-style anti-communist movement under the umbrella of the WACL and that would further Moon's global crusade and lend the Japanese yakuza leaders a respectable new facade'. (5)

Shinzo Abe eventually rose to become a dominant part of the respectable facade and successfully appeased the Japanese far-right with not well publicised visits to war-shrines for war-criminals and oriental fascists. The LDP turned a blind eye toward far-right members in their midst; political expedience was the name of their game.

The WACL also enabled a proliferation of new right-wing organisations globally and studies have concluded that it became a 'worldwide network of fascism … League conventions afford the opportunity for old-guard war criminals to meet, advise, and support the new-guard fascists'. (6) Japan was a central consideration; its Imperial past made it important.

It is, therefore, not surprising to find the emergence of the Japanese far-right Sanseito in recent elections. Without Shinzo Abe to provide them with cover inside the LDP, they now seek to establish their own foothold in the Japanese political system. Their popularist and xenophobic campaign slogans of anti-immigration and 'Japan First' carry all the hallmarks of fascists linked to their Imperial past pulling the puppet-strings on a younger generation of Japanese people. The far-right party, furthermore, finished fourth in the elections, and its newly elected fourteen M.P.s may eventually side with the minority LDP.

The re-emergence of Trump in the US has also been an important factor to explain the outcome of recent elections in Japan. The country has a large manufacturing and automotive sector, which has been seriously affected with threats from the Trump administration to impose tariffs. While high-level diplomatic talks between the two countries have resolved some of the problems with a trade deal, the fate of prime minister Shigeru Ishiba hangs in the balance. He is strongly tipped to resign, and is unpopular. (7)

A further factor being played out in Japan has been the re-emergence of militarism. Previously the country was held by a pacifist clause in their constitution restricting all military activity to only self-defence. It was conveniently ignored, however, by those who were previously associated with Shinzo Abe. A decade ago, the US and Japan subsequently reached agreement on defence and security co-operation which effectively extended Japan's reach into the wider Indo-Pacific region, on the basis of 'allowing it to act when the US or countries US forces are defending are threatened'. (8)

It was accompanied with high-level diplomatic initiatives between Japan and Australia; Shinzo Abe actively promoted the creation of an 'Australia-Japan Defence Co-operation Office' inside Japan's Ministry of Defence in April, 2014. (9) The initiative provided enhanced joint intelligence-gathering linked to US-led defence and security provision. (10)

To date, a total of 39 US-led joint military exercises between Australia and Japan have taken place during the past twelve months. (11) The fact the two countries are conducting joint military exercises every nine days has revealed strongly co-ordinated Pentagon planning for regional objectives, marked by wave upon wave of militarism.

In conclusion, the ruling LDP has been closely associated with US-led Cold War diplomatic positions since the 1950s. It has never been particularly popular with some electors who fear the re-emergence of Japanese militarism and Imperial designs, which continue to remain a taboo subject area and denial.

The outcome of recent Japanese elections remains evidence of serious disquiet taking place amongst an enlarged proportion of the electorate on issues they regard as significant.

1. The reasons behind Washington's push for GSOMIA., Hankyoreh, 12 November 2019.
2. Japanese PM tipped to resign after US tariff pact, Australian, 24 July 2025.
3. See: What are 'the Moonies', SBS News, 27 September 2022; and, 'How the Moonies took over Japan', UnHerd, 20 July 2022.
4. Inside the League, Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson, (New York, 1986), pp. 46-47.
5. Ibid., page 69.
6. Ibid., page 45.
7. Australian, op.cit., 24 July 2025.
8. Japan to extend military reach beyond self-defence, The Age, 29 April 2015.
9. Ties with Japan amount to quasi-alliance, says Tokyo, The Age, 27 October 2014.
10. Japan: Espionage, Spies and Secrets, Richard M. Bennett, (London, 2002), pp. 163-64.
11. Japanese ambassador pitches manufacturing boom with $10 bn frigate bid, Australian, 23 July 2025.