This paper offers a comparative analysis of factions in Japan’s long-time governing party, the LDP, and the country’s biggest opposition party, the DPJ, by probing into their respective causes, functions, and consequences. Factionalism in the LDP and the DPJ can be traced back to the fact that both parties came into existence as the result of a merger of formerly independent parties. In the case of the DPJ, groups based on former party affiliations still play an important role in the ‘factional landscape’ of the party.
