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The Yomiuri Shimbun Komeito officials pose with a sign for the party’s election strategy headquarters in Tokyo on Oct. 3 for the upcoming lower house election.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
20:00 JST, October 12, 2024
For the House of Representatives election on Oct. 27, junior ruling coalition partner Komeito has decided to endorse a number of candidates of senior partner the Liberal Democratic Party, a move apparently aimed at boosting Komeito’s vote haul in the proportional representation segment. But in a twist, these candidates include LDP lawmakers running for reelection after being tainted by scandal — two of whom the LDP itself has declined not to name as official party candidates.
Many ruling party officials in regional areas have been calling for election cooperation between Komeito and the LDP, but these endorsements have sparked fierce criticism from opposition parties.
Komeito decided Wednesday and Thursday which prospective candidates to back in single-seat constituencies. In total, Komeito opted to support 18 former LDP lawmakers and chiefs of lower house electoral district branches who failed to record some income in their political funds reports in a scandal that involved many LDP factions.
Although many candidates are effectively running as incumbents, Japan technically has only “former lower house members” right now, since that chamber dissolved on Oct. 9.
Komeito has set a target of “maximizing the number of seats held between the ruling parties.” Mutually supporting candidates with the LDP has been a core part of Komeito’s efforts to achieve that goal. Komeito held 32 lower house seats when the chamber was dissolved, of which 23 were won through proportional representation. Komeito had aimed to receive 8 million votes in the previous lower house election’s proportional representation segment, but ended up getting only about 7.11 million votes.
In previous elections, the LDP and Komeito have cooperated through a trade-off in which the two parties call on their supporters to vote for LDP candidates in single-seat constituencies while voting for Komeito in the proportional representation segment. Also in the upcoming election, the LDP’s cooperation will be essential for Komeito to rake in more votes in the segment.
Komeito has been aware that the unreported political funds scandal has heightened public distrust in politics. At a press conference on Monday, Komeito leader Keiichi Ishii said decisions on whether to back LDP candidates associated with the scandal would hinge on three factors: whether they had fully explained their responsibility for the scandal to local Komeito members; their contribution to cooperative ties with Komeito; and whether Komeito members consented to providing this support. Ishii insisted his party would not back former LDP lawmaker who were unendorsed by LDP, assuming that LDP headquarters would not ask for Komeito’s endorsement for such prospective candidates.
Despite this, Komeito decided to endorse former lower house member Hiromi Mitsubayashi from Saitama Constituency No. 13 and former economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura from Hyogo Constituency No. 9. The LDP currently refuses to name either of them as an official candidate. However, each had individually asked Komeito’s relevant prefectural headquarters for the party’s support. “We’ll respect the will of our local branches as much as possible,” Komeito Secretary General Makoto Nishida explained.
A 2022 legal revision redrew the map of lower house single-seat constituencies — adding 10 single-seat electoral districts to five prefectures and cutting one each from 10 prefectures — to help correct vote-value disparities. This resulted in part of Mitsubayashi’s electoral base in the former Constituency No. 14 in Saitama Prefecture being added to the new Constituency No. 14, which is where Ishii is scheduled to run. “Mr. Mitsubayashi has enthusiastically cooperated with Mr. Ishii over the years,” a senior Komeito official pointed out, and added that Nishimura had “built up good relations with local party officials.”
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda blasted Komeito over its approach to this issue. “If Komeito cooperates with these lawmakers, as if they are birds of a feather, we will make the ruling parties lose their majority in this election,” Noda said in a raised voice during a street speech in Tokyo on Thursday.
