Table of Contents
Han Dong-hoon, Busan Buk-gu Gap: A Record of the 100 Days Before and After the Election (Mar. 26-Jul. 3, 2026)
Kim Kyung-jin
Table of Contents and 13 sections
From March 26 to July 3, 2026, this record follows the spring after expulsion, the Busan Buk-gu Gap by-election, victory as an independent, and the first bill submitted in the National Assembly.
Table of Contents
Artificial Intelligence and Medicine
Kim Kyung-jin, Attorney at Law
AI in clinical care, hospitals, education, and research
AI in medical imaging, risk prediction, treatment planning, hospital operations, education, and research, with patient safety, privacy, and accountability.
[AI Library] Chapter 8: Changing Parties — The Liberal Party, the New Frontier Party, and the LDP
Beyond the Glass Ceiling
Part 2: Emergence — Election and Wandering
Chapter 8: Changing Parties — The Liberal Party, the New Frontier Party, and the LDP
Kim Kyung-jin
In the autumn of 1993, as the trees surrounding the National Diet Building began to turn red, Sanae Takaichi, having just donned the badge of a first-term member, stood at a crossroads. After being elected as an independent with the highest number of votes in the Nara Prefecture multi-member district (全県区) in the August general election, the time had come for her to decide which political party to join.
At the time, Japanese politics was at a historical turning point. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had never relinquished power for 38 years since its founding in 1955, lost its majority in the July 1993 election. A coalition cabinet of eight parties was formed with Morihiro Hosokawa (細川護熙) as Prime Minister. The '1955 System' of postwar Japanese politics was finally being shaken.
Voters were vocal in their desire for new politics—political reform, the liquidation of money-driven politics, and the introduction of a single-seat constituency system. Riding that wave, the New Party Sakigake (新党さきがけ) was formed, and Takaichi received an offer to join. However, she refused the party's endorsement. Her reason was simple: Sakigake was a party founded by former LDP members. In her eyes, speaking of reform while failing to shed the colors of the LDP lacked credibility.
Entering the Diet as an independent, Takaichi moved autonomously for a year. She studied policy in the members' office building and observed the movements of each political party.
In the spring of 1994, an opportunity arrived. A member and former Minister for Foreign Affairs named Koji Kakizawa (柿澤弘治) was leaving the LDP to form a new party. Kakizawa belonged to the liberal wing within the LDP. Economic liberalization, a middle-of-the-road path, and political reform—members who sympathized with this vision gathered. These included former LDP members like Yamada (山田), Seiichi Ota (太田 誠一), Shokei Arai (新井 将敬), and Shizuo Sato (佐藤 静雄), as well as the independent Takaichi. Together, they founded the Liberal Party (自由党), often referred to as the 'Kakizawa Liberal Party.'
The Liberal Party did not last long. In July of the same year, the Liberal Reform Federation (自由改革連合) was formed with former Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu (海部俊樹) as its leader, and the Liberal Party was absorbed into it. Kaifu had served as Prime Minister as the successor to Noboru Takeshita, who fell from power due to the Recruit scandal, but he left the LDP after friction with the party's dominant factions. He became a rallying point for opposition forces.
On December 10, 1994, nine parties and factions, including the Liberal Reform Federation, merged to form the New Frontier Party (新進党; Shinshinto). With 214 members in the Diet, it was the largest party in postwar Japanese history at the time of its founding, second only to the LDP. Its first leader was Toshiki Kaifu, and its Secretary-General was Ichiro Ozawa (小沢一郎). The goal was clear: to create a 'second party' that could rival the LDP and achieve a true two-party system.
Takaichi joined the New Frontier Party.
There was logic in that choice. The political realignment in Japan during the early 1990s was a process of individual parties repeatedly merging and splitting. No one knew which party would eventually become the LDP's true rival. However, the New Frontier Party, which had gathered more than 200 Diet members, was at least the group with the highest possibility.
In the New Frontier Party, Takaichi continued her policy activities. Taxation, economic policy, and deregulation—her interests stemmed from her experience studying in the United States and working at Matsushita Electric. She questioned the government in the Diet on topics such as trade and industrial policy, support for small and medium-sized enterprises, and investment in science and technology.
On October 20, 1996, the 41st General Election for the House of Representatives was held. It was another watershed moment in Japanese politics. This was the first election to apply the single-seat constituency and proportional representation parallel system (小選挙区比例代表並立制). The country was divided into 300 single-seat constituencies, with 200 seats elected from 11 proportional representation blocks. The multi-member district system, which had been maintained for 40 years since 1955, was finally changed.
The single-seat constituency system changes political culture. In multi-member districts, candidates from the same party competed against each other. Two or three LDP candidates had to fight one another in a single district, and factions and personal organizations were the core of the election. In a single-seat constituency, it becomes a one-on-one fight. Individual ability and party name recognition become more important.
Takaichi ran in the Nara 1st District (奈良1区) with the endorsement of the New Frontier Party. The district was centered on Nara City (奈良市). The result was a victory, marking her second term. Following her election with the most votes in the multi-member district in 1993, she also triumphed under the new electoral system.
However, immediately after the general election, the interior of the New Frontier Party began to shake.
Ichiro Ozawa, the practical ruler of the New Frontier Party, was famous for his strong grip on the party, but at the same time, he faced significant backlash. On the day the general election was officially announced, Ozawa suddenly released a massive tax cut pledge worth 18 trillion yen. He ignored the conclusion of the New Frontier Party's Tax Research Committee, which had stated that 'a massive tax cut is impossible,' and the party leader unilaterally changed the pledge.
Takaichi was furious. A single party leader overturning a policy discussed and concluded by party members in official party organs just before an election—this was not how a political party should function. Power, not policy, was ruling the party.
In November 1996, immediately after her re-election, Takaichi left the New Frontier Party. In December of the same year, she joined the Liberal Democratic Party.
It took three years for her to move through three different parties. Starting as an independent, she passed through the Liberal Party, the Liberal Reform Federation, and the New Frontier Party before arriving at the LDP. Criticism was inevitable. Words like 'opportunist' and 'someone who pursues survival over conviction' were heard.
But Takaichi's logic was different.
Opposition politics in Japan in the 1990s was, from the beginning, a collection of groups that shared a common enemy rather than a common ideology. Various parties with different characters joined forces with the single goal of defeating the LDP. Social democrats, liberals, and conservative defectors lived under one roof. That collective was moved by mathematics, not ideology, and it would dissolve the moment the calculations no longer added up.
The New Frontier Party was like that. In 1997, members from the Komeito wing were the first to defect. When the Komeito forces, based on Soka Gakkai, left, the largest support base of the New Frontier Party disappeared. Subsequently, other factions also departed. On December 27, 1997, Ichiro Ozawa held a general meeting of members from both houses and announced the dissolution of the New Frontier Party and the formation of a new party. On December 31, 1997, the New Frontier Party split into six parties, including the Liberal Party. It had been only three years since its founding.
Takaichi had already left the New Frontier Party and joined the LDP before that happened.
The choice of the LDP was not a defeat, but a recognition of reality. It was a judgment that to exert practical influence in Japanese politics, one must ultimately be within the LDP. It was the realization that in a situation where the opposition's chances of taking power were low, it was more practical to create policy within the ruling party than to raise one's voice outside the Diet.
Whether this was the right judgment is shown by subsequent history. Joining the Abe Cabinet in 2006, taking office as Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications in 2014, and becoming Prime Minister in 2025—all of these were achieved within the LDP.
However, at that moment in December 1996, as she signed her LDP membership application, no one could have known that future. There was only a choice.
Her first election in the LDP did not go well. In July 1998, she ran in the Nara Prefecture constituency for the House of Councillors with LDP endorsement but was defeated. The conservative votes in Nara Prefecture did not consolidate. Although she had the LDP banner, it was a limitation of a new member who had not yet taken root within the party.
She did not give up. In the 2000 election, she returned to the Kinki proportional representation block. Although it was not a victory achieved entirely on her own strength, it was a return to the Diet. And in 2002, she was appointed as State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in the Koizumi Cabinet.
A journey that began with her first election as an independent in 1993. The Liberal Party, the Liberal Reform Federation, the New Frontier Party, and the LDP. While repeating defeats and returns, she never lost her direction. What that direction was can be seen not by which party she left, but by what work she did in which party.
Her departure from the New Frontier Party was a reaction to Ozawa's dogmatism. Her choice of the LDP was in search of a space where she could realize policy. A political party is a tool. What matters is what can be done with that tool.
That conviction did not change for the next several decades.
Takaichi's final settling in the LDP in 1996, after experiencing three party moves, was not merely the result of political calculation. Her conservative values—strong national defense, traditional family structures, and pride in history—aligned with the LDP's platform. She moved parties, but she did not move her convictions. This is why the criticism of her as a 'political opportunist' loses its force. She moved in search of a vessel that could hold her beliefs, and that vessel was the LDP.
Joining the LDP at the end of 1996 was a decisive choice in Takaichi's political life. It was not a simple party move, but a fundamental answer to what kind of politics she wanted to practice. Looking at the seat of power from the opposition and criticizing vs. directly creating policy within the ruling party—she learned the difference with her own body during three years in the opposition.
Leaving the New Frontier Party because of Ichiro Ozawa was not a simple emotional reaction. It was a choice born from the conviction of why processes and procedures are important in politics. Even if the result is good, if the process is wrong, that result can be overturned at any time. In a party where the leader unilaterally overturns the party's official conclusions, policies lack sustainability no matter how good they are.
The loss in her first House of Councillors election in the LDP was a painful but necessary experience. It takes time to build a network in a newly joined party. The defeat in 1998 created the path that led to her return via proportional representation in 2000 and her first appointment to a political post in 2002.
References
- Sanae Takaichi Wikipedia (Japanese): https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AB%98%E5%B8%82%E6%97%A9%E8%8B%97 - New Frontier Party Wikipedia (Korean): https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%8B%A0%EC%A7%84%EB%8B%B9 - nippon.com — Timeline to Sanae Takaichi’s Presidency: https://www.nippon.com/ja/japan-data/h02560/ - Nihon Keizai Shimbun — December 10, 1994, New Frontier Party is Born: https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGKDZO36984140T01C11A2KB2000/ - Sanae Takaichi Official Profile Website: https://www.sanae.gr.jp/profile.html