Japanese economic miracle in the context of "Sony Group Corporation"

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP; Japanese: 自由民主党, romanized: Jiyū-Minshutō), also known as Jimintō (自民党), is a major conservative and nationalist political party in Japan. Since its foundation in 1955, the LDP has been in power almost continuously—a period called the 1955 System—except from 1993 to 1996, and again from 2009 to 2012.

The LDP was formed in 1955 as a merger of two conservative parties, the Liberal Party and the Japan Democratic Party, and was initially led by prime minister Ichirō Hatoyama. The LDP supported Japan's alliance with the United States and fostered close links between Japanese business and government, playing a major role in the country's economic miracle from the 1960s to early 1970s and subsequent stability under prime ministers including Hayato Ikeda, Eisaku Satō, Kakuei Tanaka, Takeo Fukuda, and Yasuhiro Nakasone. Scandals and economic difficulties led to the LDP losing power in 1993 and 1994, and governing under a non-LDP prime minister from 1994 before regaining power in 1996. In 1999, the LDP entered into a coalition with Komeito.

Japan is a great power and a member of numerous international organizations, including the United Nations (since 1956), the OECD, and the Group of Seven. Although it has renounced its right to declare war, the country maintains Self-Defense Forces that rank as one of the world's strongest militaries. After World War II, Japan experienced record growth in an economic miracle, becoming the second-largest economy in the world by 1990. As of 2021, the country's economy is the third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by PPP.

Japan has close economic and military relations with the United States, with which it maintains a security alliance. The United States is a major market for Japanese exports and a major source of Japanese imports, and is committed to defending the country, with military bases in Japan.

Sony Group Corporation, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including electronics (Sony Corporation), imaging and sensing (Sony Semiconductor Solutions), film (Sony Pictures Entertainment), music (Sony Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment Japan), video games (Sony Interactive Entertainment), and others.

Sony was founded in 1946 as initially Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita. In 1958, the company adopted the name Sony Corporation. Initially an electronics firm, it gained early recognition for products such as the TR-55 transistor radio and the CV-2000 home video tape recorder, contributing significantly to Japan's post-war economic recovery. After Ibuka's retirement in the 1970s, Morita served as chairman until 1994, overseeing Sony's rise as a global brand recognized for innovation in consumer electronics. Landmark products included the Trinitron color television, the Walkman portable audio player, and the co-development of the compact disc.

The 1955 system (Japanese: 55年体制, Hepburn: 55-nen Taisei), also known as the one-and-a-half party system, is a term used by scholars to describe the dominant-party system that has existed in Japan since 1955, in which the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has held by itself or in coalition with Komeito (from 1999 to 2025) a government nearly uninterrupted, with opposition parties largely incapable of forming significant or long lasting alternatives, other than for brief stints in 1993–1994 and 2009–2012. The terms 1955 system and the one-and-a-half party system are credited to Junnosuke Masumi [ja], who described the 1955 system as "a grand political dam into which the history of Japanese politics surge".

The years of Japan under the 1955 regime witnessed high economic growth, leading to the dominance of the ruling party in the Diet, with an undergirded tight connection between the bureaucracy and the business sector. Due to a series of LDP scandals and the 1992 burst of the Japanese asset price bubble, the LDP lost its majority in the House of Representatives in the 1993 general election, which initially signalled the end of the 1955 system. However, the left-wing Japan Socialist Party, the long-time opposition which finally gained a majority, would soon lose much of its support after it decided to form a coalition government with the arch-rival LDP just a year later, leading to the JSP being refounded as the SDP in 1996, and its coalition partner regaining power. The LDP briefly lost power again in 2009 to the now defunct Democratic Party of Japan before regaining it in 2012, retaining power up to the present day. Nevertheless, it lost its majority in the House of Representatives in the 2024 general election, and its majority in the House of Councillors in the 2025 election, forcing it to run a minority government for the first time.

Kenzō Tange (丹下 健三, Tange Kenzō; 4 September 1913 – 22 March 2005) was a Japanese architect. Born in Sakai and raised in China and southern Japan, Tange was inspired from an early age by the work of Le Corbusier and designed his first buildings under Imperial Japan. He first achieved recognition for his projects to reconstruct the destroyed cities of postwar Japan, particularly Hiroshima, where he designed the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. His engagement with the Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne in the 1950s made him one of the first Japanese architects to achieve international recognition.

Renowned for synthesizing traditional Japanese styles with modernism, Tange's work was emblematic of the Japanese postwar boom. However, he built major projects on five continents. He was a forerunner, mentor, and patron of the metabolist movement. He was also known as an ambitious, original urban planner whose ideas inspired the reconstruction of cities including Skopje. Tange would continue designing buildings until his death in 2005.

Hirohito (裕仁; 29 April 1901 – 7 January 1989), posthumously honored as Emperor Shōwa (昭和天皇, Shōwa Tennō), was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 1926 until his death in 1989. He remains the longest-reigning emperor in Japanese history and one of the longest-reigning monarchs in the world. As emperor during the Shōwa era, Hirohito presided over the rise of Japanese militarism, Japan's invasion of mainland Asia, the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Second World War, and the nation's postwar economic miracle.

Hirohito was born during the reign of his paternal grandfather, Emperor Meiji, as the first child of Crown Prince Yoshihito and Crown Princess Sadako (later Emperor Taishō and Empress Teimei). When Emperor Meiji died in 1912, Hirohito's father ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne, and Hirohito was proclaimed Crown Prince of Japan in 1916, making him the heir apparent. In 1921, he made an official visit to the United Kingdom and Western Europe, marking the first time a Japanese crown prince had traveled abroad. Due to his father's ill health, Hirohito became Sesshō of Japan (regent) that same year. In 1924, he married Princess Nagako Kuni, with whom he later had seven children: Shigeko, Sachiko, Kazuko, Atsuko, Akihito, Masahito and Takako. He became emperor upon his father's death in 1926.

The post–World War II economic expansion, also known as the postwar economic boom or the Golden Age of Capitalism was a broad period of worldwide economic expansion beginning with the aftermath of World War II and ending with the 1973–1975 recession. The United States, the Soviet Union, Australia and Western European and East Asian countries in particular experienced unusually high and sustained growth, together with full employment.

Contrary to early predictions, this high growth also included many countries that had been devastated by the war, such as Japan (Japanese economic miracle), West Germany and Austria (Wirtschaftswunder), South Korea (Miracle on the Han River), Belgium (Belgian economic miracle), France (Trente Glorieuses), Italy (Italian economic miracle) and Greece (Greek economic miracle). Even countries that were relatively unaffected by the war such as Sweden (Record years) experienced considerable economic growth.

Hirohito (裕仁; 29 April 1901 – 7 January 1989), posthumously honored as Emperor Shōwa (昭和天皇, Shōwa Tennō), was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 1926 until his death in 1989. He remains the longest-reigning emperor in Japanese history and one of the longest-reigning monarchs in the world. As emperor during the Shōwa era, Hirohito presided over the rise of Japanese militarism, Japan's invasion of mainland Asia, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War, and the nation's postwar economic miracle.

Hirohito was born during the reign of his paternal grandfather, Emperor Meiji, as the first child of Crown Prince Yoshihito and Crown Princess Sadako (later Emperor Taishō and Empress Teimei). When Emperor Meiji died in 1912, Hirohito's father ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne, and Hirohito was proclaimed Crown Prince of Japan in 1916, making him the heir apparent. In 1921, he made an official visit to the United Kingdom and Western Europe, marking the first time a Japanese crown prince had traveled abroad. Due to his father's ill health, Hirohito became Sesshō of Japan (regent) that same year. In 1924, he married Princess Nagako Kuni, with whom he later had seven children: Shigeko, Sachiko, Kazuko, Atsuko, Akihito, Masahito and Takako. He became emperor upon his father's death in 1926.