Ideology, social movements, class conflict, culture, and state power dominate most scholarship, whereas leadership is discounted-especially in Japanese studies. This case study of administrative reform demonstrates how powerful individuals manipulate constraints in creative ways, tipping the balance of historical inertia in directions of their choosing-even in Japan. Businessman Dokō Toshio and politician Nakasone Yasuhiro reconfigured Japan's ruling coalition, effectively eliminating the distinction between "mainstream" and "antimainstream" conservatives. They warned the bureaucracy that a greater degree of political control was possible and eviscerated the political base of the Japan Socialist Party, the LDP's most formidable rival under the "1955 System."