The slogan of "breaking away from factional politics" put forward by Koizumi has appeal mainly because factionalism has long become synonymous with "money politics" in Japan. For the Tanaka faction of the Liberal Democratic Party, which has long dominated the political arena, and the Takeshita, Obuchi, and Hashimoto factions who have inherited its mantle, their political philosophy is clearly stated as: "money + numbers." The so-called “money” refers to public donations and shady black money from the financial sector, and the so-called “numbers” refer to the number of members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The reason why the financial sector is willing to invest large amounts of money into big factions is, of course, in the hope that the big factions that dominate the political power will reward them, and big factions with money and benefits can naturally recruit more legislators under their banner. This is how the two relate to each other. In other words, if you have money, you have power, and if you have power, you can generate more money. It was under the guidance of this political philosophy that the Tanaka faction became increasingly invincible and formed the "Tanaka Legion" within the party that influenced party affairs. Similarly, the Takeshita faction and its successors who took advantage of Tanaka Kakuei's illness to seize power also followed the same pattern and firmly controlled the political power. For more than ten years, except for a brief period of the non-LDP coalition government led by Morihiro Hosokawa (from the Maeda-Central faction), the power of the Keiseikai (Takeshita faction) has never been lost. When conditions permit it to take power head-on, the Takeshita faction will of course cling to the state machinery, even when objective conditions do not allow the faction to send people to take action (the most typical example is the exposure of corruption cases, which arouses public outrage) and cannot face the voters. At this time, the faction will never easily withdraw from the center of power. The traditional approach of the Tanaka faction or the Takeshita faction is to conduct various behind-the-scenes transactions with various factions within the party, find reliable agents, and elect leaders or cadres of different factions as prime minister. The condition is of course that the other party must be obedient and promise full protection. The interests of the Tanaka faction or the Takeshita faction. When Toshiki Kaifu of the Kawamoto faction, Kiichi Miyazawa of the Miyazawa faction, and Yoshiro Mori of the Mori faction ascended to the throne of prime minister, they all followed the above-mentioned rules of the game set by the Takeshita faction. In 1994, participants in this political game even expanded to include people outside the party. In order to regain the country, the Liberal Democratic Party did not hesitate to give up the position of prime minister and joined hands with the Socialist Party, which had been competing with each other for decades, to form a coalition government. As for the rewards for Murayama Tomiichi, who was obsessed with becoming prime minister, as everyone knows, except for those like the Liberal Democratic Party Like other faction leaders, they must know how to be obedient and not infringe on the interests of the Takeshita faction, which is to issue a disguised statement of betrayal, announcing that they will abandon the party's founding policies and principles and support the security policies of the Liberal Democratic Party. Precisely because the "Socialist Prime Minister" Murayama obeyed and obeyed the words of the Liberal Democratic Party controlled by the Takeshita faction, and completed many tasks that the Liberal Democratic Party's independent regime could not accomplish, he won a lot of warm applause from the Liberal Democratic Party, and some people even called him " Prime Minister". It can be seen from this that in the political arena where factionalism controls everything, no matter whether the figures are members of the Takeshita faction, or agents inside and outside the party who appear in person with its nod and strong support (including the Socialist Party " "Prime Minister"), they all have to follow the grid specified in the black box operation of the faction, and they cannot read the wrong lines. When the big factions are playing tricks on each other and buying off the small factions, while the small factions are "relying on the small and selling the small" (sometimes "independent" or "non-partisan" is also a gimmick), they are waiting for a price. In the faction game, let alone any major reforms that may affect the interests of major factions or their financial backers, even the members of the cabinet must be assigned quotas based on political mechanics and arranged in the order of the lists recommended by each faction. The so-called selection of talents and talents is almost a fantasy in the post-war Japanese political history. Have you not seen how many people were ridiculed by the media as "minister patients" on the eve of the establishment or reorganization of the Japanese cabinet? They stayed up all night, asked people to intercede, and there were rumors (scandals?) of various parties quarreling and bargaining over it? Have you not seen that every new Japanese government is often ridiculed as a "cabinet cleaning cabinet" (that is, in order to satisfy the wishes of "minister patients", incompetent elders from various factions are assigned to take charge of various departments in order)? Of course, the Japanese people are deeply tired and dissatisfied with such factional politics and the methods and rules of the game in terms of cabinet personnel arrangements, but there is nothing they can do about it. At best, they can only curse "Japanese politicians as third-rate" in "izakaya" and other places. As for the counter-mainstream and young faction within the Liberal Democratic Party, they certainly have opinions on the reasonable rules of the game played by the strong and the elders. It should be said that no matter what era it is, the calls of the weak within the Liberal Democratic Party to "abolish factional factions" and advocate "renewal of people's hearts" or "change of generations" have never ceased.
The leader of the Miki faction, Takeo Miki (also a former prime minister), is a representative figure who spares no effort to advocate "renewing people's hearts" and "eliminating factional politics." As for Takeshita Noboru and his late ally Shintaro Abe of the same generation, they also strongly advocated "generational change" in order to urge former Prime Ministers Tanaka Kakuei and Fukuda Takeo to hand over the baton of the faction as soon as possible. This shows that "reform", "transforming the Liberal Democratic Party" and "breaking away from factional politics" are not patented products invented by Junichiro Koizumi or his founding slogans. The backlash against dissatisfaction with the former cabinet also shouted the slogans of "reform" and "break away from factional politics." The reason why Koizumi received special attention from all parties was, on the one hand, thanks to the media's publicity that he ignored the big factions (i.e., the Hashimoto faction). ) intention, it is related to his bold style of inviting party members and people who he thinks are "suitable for the right place" by phone alone to join the cabinet. On the other hand, it is also due to the Takeshita faction (now Hashimoto) that has been domineering in the political arena for more than ten years. faction) and the regime it supports are unpopular. Yasuo Fukuda (son of former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda), who also served as Cabinet Secretary-General (equivalent to Cabinet Spokesperson) in the Yoshiro Mori Cabinet and the Koizumi Cabinet, said that Koizumi received a support rate of more than 80%, compared with Yoshiro Mori's 9% support. The sharp contrast between Satunari and Nichiro can be said to be a kind of backlash against Yoshiro Mori's cabinet. In response to this high support rate that even Koizumi himself did not expect, Yasuhiro Nakasone, a veteran of the Liberal Democratic Party and former Prime Minister who is still unwilling to be lonely at this moment, made the following wise words to the "Koizumi kites" that are flying with the "wind" of public support: "As long as As soon as the wind stopped, Koizumi's kite landed immediately." (Zhuo Nansheng)