Election Campaigning Japanese Style

Running for public office in postwar Japan requires the endorsement of apolitical party and a sophisticated system of organizational support. In thisvolume, Gerald L. Curtis provides a detailed case study of the campaign of SatoBunsei, who in 1967 ran for the Lower House of Japan's parliament as a nonincumbentcandidate of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Sato's district consisted of amodern urban center and a tradition-bound rural hinterland and featured a dynamicdialectic between old and new patterns of electioneering, which led Sat? to innovatenew strategies and techniques.Since its publication in 1971,sociologists and anthropologists as well as political scientists have consideredCurtis's microanalysis of Japan's political system to be a vital historicaldocument, offering insights into Japanese social behavior and political organizationthat are still relevant. The Japanese edition of Curtis's pioneering study,Daigishi No Tanjo, a best-seller, is valued today as a classicand read and cited by journalists, politicians, and scholars alike. This new editionfeatures an introduction in which the author reflects on the reception of his bookand on the changes in Japan's election process since itspublication.