Explaining Conservative Hegemony in Japan: The Role of US Intelligence

This paper examines the role of the US intelligence community (IC) in establishing and perpetuating the political dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan during the Cold War. The study sheds light on the modalities of the US IC’s involvement in the Japanese political process, evaluates the effectiveness and consequences of this intervention and seeks to place it in a broader comparative perspective. The timing of the most intense phase of the US IC’s intervention in Japan’s political process is important, occurring during the tumultuous first decade after the US-led occupation when conservative dominance was uncertain. The project’s central argument is that, nevertheless, the US IC’s contribution to establishing and stabilising LDP rule cannot be considered in isolation from other important endogenous factors, most notably Japanese political actors. It is therefore necessary to explore the role of conservative elites who actively and eagerly engaged with the US IC in pursuit of their own political and economic interests. The relationship between the US IC and Japanese conservatives helped reinforce Japan’s status as a one-party LDP-ruled, junior ally of Washington.