Editing Politics of Japan (section)

== Political developments since 2000 ==
Prime Minister Obuchi suffered a stroke in April 2000 and was replaced by [[Yoshirō Mori]]. After the Liberal Party left the coalition in April 2000, Prime Minister Mori welcomed a Liberal Party splinter group, the [[New Conservative Party (Japan)|New Conservative Party]], into the ruling coalition. The three-party coalition made up of the LDP, New Komeito, and the New Conservative Party maintained its majority in the Diet following the June 2000 Lower House elections.

After a turbulent year in office in which he saw his approval ratings plummet to the single digits, Prime Minister Mori agreed to hold early elections for the LDP presidency in order to improve his party's chances in crucial [[2001 Japanese House of Councillors election|July 2001 Upper House elections]]. On 24 April 2001, riding a wave of grassroots desire for change, maverick politician [[Junichiro Koizumi]] defeated former prime minister Hashimoto and other party stalwarts on a platform of economic and political reform.

Koizumi was elected as Japan's 56th Prime Minister on 26 April 2001. On 11 October 2003, Prime Minister Koizumi dissolved the [[House of Representatives (Japan)|lower house]] and he was re-elected as the president of the LDP. Likewise, that year, the LDP won the [[2003 Japan general election|general election]], even though it suffered setbacks from the new opposition party, the [[Liberalism|liberal]] and [[social-democratic]] [[Democratic Party of Japan|Democratic Party]] (DPJ). A similar event occurred during the [[2004 Japanese House of Councillors election|2004 Upper House election]] as well.

On 8 August 2005, Prime Minister [[Junichiro Koizumi]] called for a [[2005 Japan general election|snap general election]] to the lower house, as threatened, after LDP stalwarts and opposition DPJ parliamentarians defeated his proposal for a large-scale reform and privatization of [[Japan Post]], which besides being Japan's state-owned postal monopoly is arguably the world's largest financial institution, with nearly 331 trillion yen of assets. The election was scheduled for 11 September 2005, with the LDP achieving a landslide victory under [[Junichiro Koizumi]]'s leadership.

The ruling LDP started losing hold in 2006. No prime minister except Koizumi had good public support. On 26 September 2006, the new LDP President [[Shinzo Abe]] was elected by a special session of the National Diet to succeed [[Junichiro Koizumi]] as the next prime minister. He was Japan's youngest post-World War II prime minister and the first born after the war. On 12 September 2007, Abe surprised Japan by announcing his resignation from office. He was replaced by [[Yasuo Fukuda]], a veteran of LDP.

In the meantime, on 4 November 2007, the leader of the main opposition party, [[Ichirō Ozawa]] announced his resignation from the post of party president, after controversy over an offer to the DPJ to join the ruling coalition in a [[grand coalition]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.japannewsreview.com/politics/politics/20071104page_id=2861|title=DPJ leader Ozawa hands in resignation over grand coalition controversy – Japan News Review|website=japannewsreview.com|access-date=17 March 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109084410/http://www.japannewsreview.com/politics/politics/20071104page_id=2861|archive-date=9 November 2007}}</ref> but has since, with some embarrassment, rescinded his resignation.

On 11 January 2008, Prime Minister [[Yasuo Fukuda]] forced a bill allowing ships to continue a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of US-led operations in Afghanistan.  To do so, PM Fukuda used the LDP's overwhelming majority in the Lower House to ignore a previous "no-vote" of the opposition-controlled Upper House. This was the first time in 50 years that the Lower House voted to ignore the opinion of the Upper House. Fukuda resigned suddenly on 1 September 2008, just a few weeks after reshuffling his cabinet. On 1 September 2008, Fukuda's resignation was designed so that the LDP did not suffer a "power vacuum". It thus caused a leadership election within the LDP, and the winner, [[Tarō Asō]] (Shigeru Yoshida's grandson) was chosen as the new LDP president on 24 September 2008, he was appointed as the 92nd Prime Minister after the House of Representatives voted in his favor in the extraordinary session of the National Diet.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080924x1.html|website=The Japan Times|access-date=17 March 2018|title=JT|archive-date=6 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606150426/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080924x1.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Later, on 21 July 2009, Prime Minister Asō dissolved the House of Representatives and [[2009 Japanese general election|general election]] was held on 30 August.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2009/07/22/editorials/critical-election-to-come/|title=Critical election to come - The Japan Times|website=japantimes.co.jp|date=22 July 2009|access-date=17 March 2018|archive-date=13 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913000938/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2009/07/22/editorials/critical-election-to-come/|url-status=live}}</ref>
The election results for the House of Representatives were announced on 30 and 31 August 2009. The opposition party DPJ led by [[Yukio Hatoyama]] ([[Ichirō Hatoyama]]'s grandson), won a majority by gaining 308 seats (10 seats were won by its allies the Social Democratic Party and the People's New Party). On 16 September 2009, the leader of DPJ, Hatoyama was elected by the [[House of Representatives (Japan)|House of Representatives]] as the 93rd [[Prime Minister of Japan]].