Regime Shift

The Liberal Democratic Party, which dominated postwar Japan, lost power in the early 1990s. During that same period, Japan's once stellar economy suffered stagnation and collapse. Now a well-known commentator on contemporary Japan traces the political dynamics of the country to determine the reasons for these changes and the extent to which its political and economic systems have been permanently altered. T. J. Pempel contrasts the political economy of Japan during two decades: the 1960s, when t