Japan's uncertain political transition began in July 1993, when the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) -- in power since 1955 -- was replaced by a fragile multiparty coalition. Under Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, the coalition faced turmoil in April 1994, when Hosokawa resigned abruptly amid a personal financial scandal. Then-deputy prime minister/foreign minister Tsutomu Hata succeeded, but only at the head of a minority government as the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a key coalition partner, quit the coalition. Though beset by its own internal squabbles, the LDP remained the single largest party in Japan's bicameral Diet, or parliament. In late June, Hata was forced to resign under threat of an LDP-led no-confidence motion.

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On May 22, 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (Sup. Ct. Doc. No. 93-1456) in a 5-4 decision held that Arkansas' constitutional amendment, Section 3 of Amendment 73, providing for limitations on congressional terms of office was unconstitutional in that it established an additional qualification for congressional office in violation of Article I, Sections 2 and 3 setting forth the three basic qualifications of age, citizenship and inhabitancy for Members of Congress.