Paper short abstract:

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe has proposed a drastic reform plan for the Japanese Agricultural Co-operatives, the party's longtime and loyal supporter. What encouraged Abe to carry out the reform plan? This article analyzes the reform plan from the viewpoint of constructivist institutionalism.

Paper long abstract:

One of the main components of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe's new economic policies, the so-called Abenomics was a drastic reform plan for the Japanese Agricultural Co-operatives (JA) The JA has been a faithful supporter of the LDP for the last sixty years or so, and the party relied heavily on the JA particularly in the rural districts, which are more important than the urban ones, given the fact that more districts are allocated to rural areas than urban areas in the Japanese Diet. As expected, the JA reform plan invited fierce opposition from the JA, which threatened to end its support of the party in future elections. Why is the Abe administration trying to reform the JA, even though it could result in a substantial decline in the party's share of votes? What is Abe trying to achieve by implementing such a policy that is highly unpopular among his party's longtime supporters? Why did the reform policy turn out in the way it did? Is Abe serious about carrying out the proposed reform plan, or is it just for show? This article analyzes the context behind the JA reform plan from the viewpoint of constructivist institutionalism focusing on policymakers' ideas regarding party management. It argues that the Abe administration's JA reform is not a product of the 1994 electoral reform but a part of an incremental change from a clientelistic party to a centralized party, which was rooted in LDP history since the time of its foundation. This study shows that ideational contention between two of the major LDP factions became the foundation for the JA reform today.

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