Changes and Continuity of LDP Leadership Selection Process during the 2000s

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The leadership selection process of Japan's LDP has experienced rapid and far-reaching changes during the 2000s. Not only the factions of diet members, but also the rank-and-file party members are now included as participants in the process. This research aims to explain the causal mechanism and the effects of these changes. In conclusion, the 1994 electoral reform opened up the leadership selection process: the importance of leader images and the LDP organizational decline under SMD system accelerated the transformation of the selection process. In addition, the candidates for the LDP leadership become younger, have less experiences, and tend to be chosen from the urban constituencies as a result of these changes.