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Paper short abstract

The 2022 assassination of Shinzō Abe exposed the clientelist ties between Japan’s LDP and the Unification Church. Using systems theory, the case exemplifies how parasitic structural couplings are inherent to clientelism and subsequently collapse under public scrutiny, restoring order through crisis.

Paper long abstract

The assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe on 8 July 2022 brought the previously covert politico-religious clientelist relationship between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the 'New Religion' Unification Church (UC) to public attention. The perpetrator, Tetsuya Yamagami, attributed his motive to the disruptive impact of the UC on his family’s financial and interpersonal stability. According to his assessment, this was made possible by the political legitimization and structural protection that the LDP and especially Abe had granted the UC.

In clientelist relationships, client and patron monitor one another with regard to resources advantageous for their own structural development. The LDP translated the UC’s resources (personnel, finances, information, and mobilization capacity) into electoral and administrative benefits, while the UC translated political prestige, lobbying influence, and protection from regulatory oversight into support for its dogma. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, the clientelist relationship can thus be analyzed as a form of structural coupling. Typical for such couplings, it remained functional as long as it remained concealed. However, such clientelist arrangements are only possible by accessing parasitic resource extraction from third-party systems – in this case, money from the family system. Building on Michel Serres’ concept of the parasite, it becomes evident that such precarious strains inevitably lead to the clientelist relationship becoming publicly visible – exemplified by the assassination of Abe. This resulted in scandal, a loss of legitimacy for the LDP, and attempts at political disentanglement, which in turn led to a (temporary) suspension of relations.

Thus, the guiding hypothesis is that the case exemplifies how parasitic dynamics and structural coupling are inherent to clientelism. They operate in a corrupting manner, yet also (unintentionally) restore political order through destabilization and subsequent implosion.