Abstract: As one of the widely-known characteristics of Japanese politics, the developmental process of faction has seldom been carefully reviewed. A comprehensive and indepth exploration of the mechanism of its emergence and change is a topic rarely touched by domestic academic circles. In order to expose the reason of appearance and development of faction politics in Japan and find the general rule dictating the development, this paper discusses the decisive impacts of political power structure, distribution of voters, party system, especially the election system design, in the birthing and development of faction politics, by reviewing the modification of factions and connecting the development of factions with Japanese politics in different periods. Finally, the social impacts of faction politics has also been summarized.

Key words: faction, Japanese politics, election system, social results