Citation:
Smith, Dan. 2014. “Party Ideals and Practical Constraints in Kōmeitō Candidate Nominations.” Kōmeitō: Politics and Religion in Japan. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. Copy at http://www.tinyurl.com/y3d4j6pb
Abstract:
"Anyone interested in contemporary Japanese politics needs to read this book. Certainly, no student of Japanese party politics can afford not to read it. This volume illuminates Komeito's history, organization, electoral mobilization, and behavior in and out of power. More importantly, this book reorients our understanding of the intersection of religion and politics in Japan, a topic that has danced along the periphery of academic studies even as it has grabbed headlines in Japan and beyond. My only question is why scholars had to wait fifty years for such an incisive study of Komeito."
–Robert Pekkanen, University of Washington