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The Liberal Democratic Party was an example of a political entity which has cultivated a corporatist nature to its politics. The LDP being the oldest and strongest political party in Japan, it dominated and controlled the Diet for many years since the emergence of 20th century. As the 20th century prepared for the coming of the 21st century, LDP had been the focus of political scandals, wherein its strong connections with businesses and corporations revealed that Japanese politics was controlled not by the LDP, but its sponsor businesses instead. In 1998-2001, it was found that LDP had been involved in the long history of corruption and bribery from businesses and corporations in exchange for a promise in deregulation in specific sectors of the business/economic society (e.g., banking and financing and manufacturing).

The social structure of Japan at present was not as hierarchical and stratified as it was during the Meiji Restoration period. As Japan became a modern state under this period, a status system was formed, which designated specific sectors of the society into various classes and functions. The status system was composed of the samurai, the commoners (peasant farmers, merchants, and artisans), and the daimyo, the land-holding class. During the Meiji period, the samurai class had the highest position and the most favorable privilege among the classes. However, as the country moved toward modernization in the 20th century, this status system was dissolved and a new social order emerged. The commoners and daimyo became more successful than the samurai because of the former's economic wealth and capabilities, as compared to the samurai who have only status but still depend on the daimyo for money.

Modern Japan no longer subsisted to this kind of social stratification. No classes in society were created, be it in terms of religion, race, business affiliation, or political affiliation. Perhaps the most evident form of class stratification was geographical in nature: there is the "burakumin" or "hamlet people," which was stratified as such because they lived in segregated villages in the country. The burakumin was the equivalent of America's ghettos, wherein most of the minority members of the society live. Not only are the burakumin segregated geographically, they are also marginalized in the sense that burakumin people are assigned jobs and activities that are considered "unclean" by the Japanese, that is, menial working such as cleaning, slaughtering animals, and disposing of the dead. This stratification in Japanese society has little influence in politics, mainly because they are not active participants and involved in Japanese politics. The burakumin, in effect, are not represented in Japanese politics.