[Think Tank Project Information] Thinking about the "Political Party Law" through Harmony Theory: Can political parties become ethical "legal entities"?

Waymarks Hibiki-kai is pleased to announce the launch of a project within our "Harmony Institute (Think Tank Division)" to monitor Japanese political reform, focusing on "political parties."

⇒ For those who want to grasp the project quickly, please first look at [Summary for Busy People] in the table of contents!

⇒ For those who wish to check the background and analysis methods, please look at the content following the subheadings marked [Details] in the table of contents!

■ [Summary for Busy People] Promoting Reiwa-era political reform through the insights of the Harmony Institute

In this project, our organization will contribute to Reiwa-era political reform by analyzing and evaluating the progress of "political party" reform from the unique perspective of peace studies at the Harmony Institute, and by conducting continuous monitoring.

■ Direction and Methods of Policy Recommendations

・Starting from the collapse of the Liberal Democratic Party's governance revealed by the slush fund scandal, we will rethink the significance of the existence of "political parties," which is one of the causes of political distrust in Japan.
　➡ Contribute to the realization of Reiwa-era political reform starting from political parties.

・Use the political reform proposals advocated by the Reiwa National Conference (commonly known as "Reiwa Rincho") as the initial benchmark for analysis, measure the gap with the reform proposals of current major political parties, and evaluate the degree of reform achievement.

・Identify factors that hinder effective governance of Japanese political parties within the academic field of "Harmony Theory," an academic system for practicing peace advocated by the Harmony Organization.
<Academic Fields and Theories Referenced>
▪ Organizational Theory
▪ Corporate Theory
(Katsuto Iwai's "People, Things, and Legal Entities" theory)
▪ Management Theory
(Richard P. Chait et al., "Governance as Leadership: Reframing the Work of Nonprofit Boards")
・Peace Studies, Conflict Resolution Studies

・Based on the achievement level of the Reiwa Rincho reform proposals and the governance of political parties under "Harmony Theory," we will re-propose the direction of future reform, including the necessity of formulating a "Political Party Law."

・Continue to evaluate and monitor the progress of reform for each political party in the future.
　➡ Provide opportunities to disclose findings to society through reports and press conferences.

■ Management Policy of Our Group Regarding This Project

・Upon the launch of this project, regardless of the amount donated, we will provide those who have donated with progress reports, final reports, and information on related events free of charge.
→ Please refer to the donation link below.
( If you would like to receive the benefits, please be sure to contact us at the designated email address: ask.waymarks@gmail.com )
→ The donations received will be used for establishing legal entity status and developing research facilities.

■ [Details: Project Background] The Necessity of Reiwa-era Political Reform

■ The political issue of "political reform" casting a shadow over the high approval rating of the Sanae Takaichi administration

The Takaichi-Jii coalition government led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who announced at her inauguration press conference that she would advance policies at "top speed," got off to a good start with a high approval rating of over 80%, coupled with the successful evaluation of her summit diplomacy.

An extraordinary Diet session will be convened on November 4th.

As was the case with former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the Takaichi administration is also forced to manage the government as a "minority ruling party" where the ruling party does not hold a majority of seats in either the House of Representatives or the House of Councillors.
The Takaichi administration's ability to realize policies will finally be put to the test.

Although it might be overlooked due to the high approval rating at the time of its inauguration, there was one action in Prime Minister Takaichi's government management policy that was not well received by the public.

That is the appointment of Diet members who were involved in the Liberal Democratic Party's so-called "slush fund scandal" to key positions.
In particular, the appointment of Koichi Hagiuda, a powerful figure in the former Abe faction which is the epicenter of the slush fund scandal, as Acting Secretary-General, has been opposed by a majority of 70% of the public in opinion polls.

In 2024, public anger over political distrust exploded due to the LDP's slush fund scandal.
It eventually led to the resignation of former Prime Minister Kishida and his replacement by former Prime Minister Ishiba, but political distrust remained deep-seated, and contrary to the high trust in former Prime Minister Ishiba personally, the approval ratings for the administration and the ruling party did not easily improve.

The Takaichi administration achieved a high approval rating despite such issues related to political reform, but the rise in the LDP's own approval rating remains sluggish.
In local elections, the situation for LDP-affiliated candidates remains as severe as ever, and the outcome of the upcoming national election remains unpredictable.

■ The long-awaited "Reiwa Political Reform Outline"

In May 2022, the "Reiwa National Conference (hereinafter referred to as 'Reiwa Rincho')" was launched, centered on private experts, to make policy recommendations to pass on a sustainable Japanese society and democracy to the next generation.

The proposals of Reiwa Rincho also included the governance of politics, which is the foundation of Japanese democracy. Ahead of the House of Councillors election in June and July 2025, Reiwa Rincho showed its ideal form in the report "Towards Reiwa Political Reform: Re-establishing the Governance of Japanese Democratic Politics".

In the early Heisei era, Japan was swept up in the fever of unprecedented "political reform." Following a series of "politics and money" problems such as the "Recruit scandal," anger at the LDP government exploded, the first Hosokawa coalition government by a party other than the LDP was born, and all of Japan was paying close attention to political reform.

Under such circumstances, the LDP also came to issue a
"Political Reform Outline" in response to public opinion demanding a fresh start that would involve dismantling the party.

― More than 30 years later, the trust in the Diet and political parties that carry out politics is still low, which is pointed out as a problem in the Reiwa Rincho report.

When the slush fund scandal broke, it was pointed out that the lack of a "Political Party Law" in Japan to regulate how political parties should function was a problem, and arguments calling for such a law were made both inside and outside the Diet.

In its report, the Reiwa Rincho (Reiwa Administrative Reform Council) takes the stance that rather than aiming to formulate a Political Party Law unnecessarily, political parties should first be encouraged to reform themselves.
However, it also views the lack of remarkable progress in political reform at the party level as a problem, and warns each party that if a passive stance continues, the final resort of formulating a Political Party Law will be unavoidable.

The Takaichi administration has agreed with its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, on political reform regarding the "reduction of the number of seats in the House of Representatives", but the aforementioned report did not view the high number of seats as the issue.

While the "reduction of the number of seats in the House of Representatives" symbolizes the "self-cutting reform" that is the top priority for the Japan Innovation Party, it appeared as a political reform agenda that seemed like a "distraction" to avoid making the slush fund scandal the central issue.

The Reiwa Rincho concludes the document it issued alongside the aforementioned report, which calls on individual politicians and political parties to undertake political reform, with the following sentence.

■ [Details: Political Party Analysis Method] Application of "Harmony Theory," an academic system for practicing peace

Our organization draws on the ancient Japanese pacifism and proposes a new academic field called "Harmony Theory" as an evolved form of peace studies.

"Harmony Theory" is useful for the analysis and monitoring of political party reform because this academic system is a framework for transforming disharmony into harmony, making it effective for problems related to relationships, such as human relations and organizations, which are the causes of disharmony.

"Harmony Theory" is an academic system proposed by our organization that deepens conflict resolution studies/conflict research and can analyze a wide range of problems caused by relationships by combining not only war studies, which are traditionally linked to peace, but also organizational theory, psychology, and more.

Using the Reiwa Rincho's political reform proposals as a benchmark, we will attempt an analysis using Harmony Theory to ensure the effectiveness of reforms and gain hints for further reform.

* Please refer to the article at the link below for details on the concept of "Harmony" and the vision of a "Great Power of Peace Thought."
About the "Michishirube Hibikikai" project structure and "Japan as a Great Power of Peace Thought" and "Harmony"

Since the subject of Harmony Theory this time is the organization known as a "political party," organizational theory, social psychology, and other strategic and management theories are expected to be the primary analytical frameworks.

■ Development process from Peace Studies → Conflict Resolution Studies → "Harmony Theory" - Toward an academic system that "practices" peace

In peace studies, the state where parties have resolved both visible violence ("direct violence") and invisible violence ("structural violence") is defined as "negative peace" and "positive peace", and achieving positive peace was the goal of peace studies.

However, peace studies, with its expanded definition of peace, faced the problem that the issues hindering peace became diversified, causing the focus of the discipline to blur instead.

Our organization focused on conflict resolution studies and conflict research to explore a practical path to peace.

While deepening our insights, we began to sense the potential to deepen conflict resolution studies.

Conflict resolution studies, which examines issues related to the relationship of "conflict," can be systematized by broadening its scope to include not only the traditionally associated war studies but also organizational theory and psychology as it did when the discipline was founded, potentially showing a path to resolving diverse human problems from the individual to the national level—.
Could the deepening and reorganization of conflict resolution studies also lead to providing a path to "practice" peace for peace studies, which has lost its focus—.

Conflict resolution studies have provided frameworks for resolving the major conflicts of each era.
Currently, interstate wars, which had subsided after the end of the Cold War, have been revived by the war in Ukraine, and political division is spreading in the United States and countries around the world.
Both visible violence and states that lack visible violence but cannot be called peaceful are expanding.

Now is the time for conflict resolution studies to evolve.

Through this project, our organization intends to develop the academic system of harmony theory and demonstrate its potential.

■ An approach focusing on the ethics of "legal entities" - Katsuhito Iwai's "Theory of Humans, Things, and Legal Entities"

In conducting this political party analysis, there is a theory we particularly wish to reference.

That is the theory that "ethics" lies at the core of greed-filled capitalism by economist Katsuhito Iwai, known as his "Theory of Humans, Things, and Legal Entities." We will reference this theory as a hint for how political parties—which are "legal entities" that perform the highly public service of realizing policies for the people—can demonstrate ethics.

This theory was brought to public attention mainly through Mr. Iwai's books "What Will Happen to Companies" and "Who Do Companies Belong To?", and it was also featured recently in the special edition of the NHK BS Special series "Capitalism of Greed" this year, titled "Company Theory of Greed 2025: Who Does Your Organization Belong To? The Mystery of Legal Entities.".

Recent corporate acquisitions and the rise of "activist shareholders" raise the question: "Who do companies belong to?" This question invites the doubt:
Do managers or shareholders own the company? ("Shareholder Sovereignty Theory").

In response to this question, Mr. Iwai focuses on the nature of the company as a "legal entity enterprise" and its property of being "a thing that is also a human (→ capable of contractual acts)" as a "legal entity." He points out that shareholder sovereignty theory is incorrect, arguing that shareholders can only own the legal entity as a "thing," but cannot own the legal entity as a "human."

In the aforementioned NHK program, Mr. Iwai touched upon the history of the "legal entity" system as having developed as a non-profit organization, and argued that joint-stock companies established in modern civil society are also highly social organizations. By re-examining the nature of the joint-stock company as a legal entity, Mr. Iwai discovered that

"ethics" lurks at the core of the agents of greed-filled capitalism, and arrived at the importance of managers respecting and utilizing human resources to continue producing value for society.

Turning to modern Japan, the ethics of the "political party" as a legal entity, which should truly be called a "public instrument," is now being questioned.
Due to the political reforms of the Heisei era, a political environment was realized where massive scandals like those in the early postwar period are less likely to occur.
However, the Liberal Democratic Party's slush fund scandal uncovered in 2024 showed Japanese society that the homework of political reform remained in the Reiwa era.

In this project, while referencing Mr. Iwai's theory and management theories regarding the governance of non-profit organizations, we will proceed with free and vigorous discussion and research on how organizations called political parties can demonstrate the ethics inherent to legal entities.

■ [Details: Future Developments]

After forming the project team, we will proceed with the analysis of major political parties, starting with the Liberal Democratic Party, which was the epicenter of political distrust, while deepening the framework of harmony theory.

Dissatisfaction with politics is the flip side of the desire to have daily hardships resolved.
Toward the realization of "Japan as a great power of peace ideology," we will fulfill our responsibilities as a think tank by first helping to overcome political issues within our own country.