Abstract
It is often pointed out that 1994 Electoral Reform changed the party system in Japanese national politics and the relationship between parties and candidates. However, did the change happen only in national politics? This article will examine the effects on local politics of important institutional changes that followed electoral reform and decentralization reform which also took place in the 1990s. In order to examine the effects, this article analyzes prefectural assemblies' elections after 1991, being held as quadrennial unified local elections in 44 prefectures. Through this analysis, we find the electoral strategy of Democratic Party of Japan leads to the trend toward polarization in local politics. But at the same time, we also find that decentralization reform makes local politics more important than ever, and two factors that are specific to local politics, that is, electoral system for prefectural assemblies and presidential system of local governments, prevent from accelerating the realignment of local politics coupled to the realignment of national politics.
