Social Democratic Party Head Takako Doi In Despair

“I feel so depressed and humiliated to be deprived of power in my 34-year-long district chapter, and what is worse, by a candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).“

74-year-old Takako Doi, who has lead Japan’s Social Democratic Party (SDP) for 17 years, finally hung her head after having lost an election in the Hyogo Prefecture on November 10. Being elected as a candidate of the proportional representative, she still can attend the House. Nevertheless, her political career will eventually be at stake because SDP is undergoing a critical moment now after having its number of parliament seats decreased to one-third of the former number.

In the election for the House of Representatives in 1958, the Social Democratic Party of Japan was apparently the nation’s first opposition party by occupying 166 seats out of total 467 parliamentary seats, following the LDP (287 seats). Widely supported by the citizens with its catchphrase “Standing by the weak in society,” the SDP has been losing seats with the growing Japanese economy, and in the end, the party suffered a political tragedy as it saw its leader fail in the election.

The aged chairman Doi appealed to the voters that “This is the last chance” but ended in failure by SDP candidate’s offensive challenge which attacked the problems of the families of Japanese kidnapped to North Korea and SDP’s pro-North Korea activities in the past. An allegation of the aides’ salary scandal partly resulted in the decrease in support.

Doi was elected to the House of Representatives in 1969 while she was a lecturer of Doshisha University. Since her entry to politics, she has recorded 11 victories in the elections and became the first female chairman of the House of Representatives.

Remaining single all her life, Doi herself would say, “I am married to the peaceful Constitution.” Whenever there were suggestions of revising constitutional law by conservative parties such as the Liberal Democratic Party, Doi used to hold out against the opposition.

She was also a “godmother” who tremendously contributed to the entry of women into the political sphere. She was the first female chairman of the party in Japanese history and succeeded in realizing the bigger opposition party (than the ruling party) for the first time in history. In this election, she produced 22 women representatives for the Social Democratic Party and gave rise to a “Madonna syndrome.”

Also in the representatives election in 1990, she played a critical role for the candidates of the pre-Social Democratic Party to be elected en masse. In 1996, she changed the name of party to Social Democratic Party and continued to progress the reform of the party. However, in the midst of strong rightist atmosphere in Japanese society these days, the Social Democratic Party, who has been the symbol of a guardian of constitutionalism, suffered a crushing defeat of “failure of the leader in her district chapter.”

Hun-Joo Cho hanscho@donga.com