LONDON -- Is Japan becoming a "normal" parliamentary democracy with a two-party system? Commentators outside and inside Japan have suggested that the Nov. 9 general election may have fundamentally altered the balance of power in Japan and that, with the growth of the Democratic Party of Japan, the country is moving toward a "normal" two-party system. I am not convinced, although there are signs of political change in Japan.
The assumption is that a two-party system -- in which government is in the hands of one party for a number of years and then loses the confidence of the electorate to the extent that it is thrown out and the opposition party takes over -- is the normal situation in a parliamentary democracy. This certainly describes politics at present in Britain, the United States and some European democracies. But in others there may be a number of different parties, and government may be operated by a coalition.
In Britain the Liberal Democrats are a significant third party, and it does not follow that a two-party system is either "normal" or necessary for the effective operation of a parliamentary democracy.