Around the world, liberal democracies are under pressure and established parties are falling apart. Not so the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan! The longtime ruling party has been in power almost continuously for 70 years – and its membership has even been growing over the last ten years . Dr. Daniel Koss is researching the reasons behind the success of this political organization. The political scientist is currently a Humboldt Fellow at the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Daniel Koss is based at Harvard University, USA. He studies the political parties from East Asia and their history. Most recently, he focused on the Chinese Communist Party und analysed how the party is still shaped by the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). Since then, his research has taken the German-born researcher to the USA and East Asia.
At the Institute of East Asian Studies (IN-EAST), Dr. Koss would like to analyse the success of the Liberal Democratic Party in more detail. „I do not think the conventional explanation revolving around money politics are complete. My empirical studies show that the Liberal Democrats have found ways to connect with ordinary citizens, even at the periphery far away from Tokyo. The networks at the local level are sophisticated. They work that well because they benefit from the efforts by generations of conservative party organizers. And they date back to the late 19th century, to the Meiji era“, explains Daniel Koss.

For three years the Humboldt fellow will regularly spend time at the Universität of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) to develop his research on the long-term historical development of conservative parties in Japan. The results will contribute to his next book project that he has been working on for some time. Until then, the 46-year-old is looking forward to exchanging ideas with colleagues at IN-EAST: „I am excited to exchange ideas with the community hear, about contemporary challenges and the history of East Asian democracy. And to discuss what the results of my research might mean for Germany and Europe.“