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THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE JAPANESE LEFT: From Old Socialists to New Democrats. Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies Series. By Sarah Hyde. London and New York: Routledge, 2009. xviii, 204 pp. (Tables, figures.) US$125.00, cloth. ISBN 978-0-415-46665-3.
This book, which is based on the author's doctoral thesis in Japanese politics, analyzes the decline of the former Japan Socialist Party (JSP) and the rise of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) as the main opposition group in Japan. It seeks to explain how the "left" in Japan changed from the 1980s onwards and to identify some of the key factors that contributed to that change. It documents changing voter attitudes towards political parties over the period 1980-2000, sketches processes of party formation and realignment during the 1990s, and charts the progress of the DPJ from its initial formation in 1996 until 2007. The book examines the impact of both constitutional issues and electoral reform on the JSP and DPJ, and the relationship between these parties and the union movement. The book ends with a case study of the process of JSP decline and DPJ rise in Okayama Prefecture.
What was a good book might have been a great book if it had, firstly, not stopped its analysis in 2008, thus missing the climax of the DPJ's growth trajectory from 1996...