CDPJ and JIP: Parties Do Not Look Ready To Take Responsibility in Governing

Editorial

14:59 JST, August 23, 2025

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Japan Innovation Party are each trying to draw nearer to the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito. They are believed to be concerned that the emergence of new political forces as the result of the recent House of Councillors election could overshadow their own presence.

However, if they think they can easily regain their strength by moving closer to the ruling coalition, they are thoroughly mistaken.

The CDPJ held an informal meeting of its lawmakers from the House of Representatives and the upper house to discuss the results of the upper house election. The party leadership presented a paper saying the party had “failed to secure recognition as a viable alternative [to the ruling parties],” but CDPJ lawmakers criticized the paper, saying it should acknowledge defeat, and the party decided to rewrite its content.

Within the CDPJ, opinion is divided on how to deal with the ruling parties.

At the recent extraordinary Diet session, CDPJ leader Yoshihiko Noda called on Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to hold policy talks on regulating corporate and organizational political donations as well as on the introduction of tax credits with benefits, which would combine income tax cuts with cash benefits. The prime minister indicated his willingness to hold discussions on those policy matters.

Noda’s aim seems to be regaining support by taking the lead in policy talks, but there is criticism within his party that he is effectively trying to help the Ishiba administration.

Meanwhile, within the JIP, there are calls for the party to join the LDP-Komeito coalition to realize the party’s flagship policy of establishing a secondary capital.

The idea is to develop a city that will serve as a new home for central government ministries and agencies in anticipation of such disasters as a major earthquake in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Although the location has not been specified, the party has Osaka, its home turf, in mind.

The ruling parties are currently 13 seats short of a majority in the lower house and three seats short in the upper house. If either the CDPJ, which has 148 lower house seats and 38 upper house seats, or the JIP, which has 38 lower house seats and 19 upper house seats, joined the coalition, the ruling coalition would have a majority in both chambers of the Diet. This would stabilize the political situation.

However, if the parties were to join the coalition, they would be responsible for overall policy, and would no longer be able to make demands that disregard fiscal resources as they have done in the past.

Based on the behavior of the CDPJ and JIP in the previous ordinary session of the Diet, it is difficult to believe they are qualified to be a part of the government.

For example, during the deliberations on this fiscal year’s budget, the CDPJ criticized the government’s proposal to raise the upper limit on out-of-pocket expenses for patients whose medical expenses are high and forced the government to withdraw it. At the time, the CDPJ did not present any alternative measures, such as ones to curb social security expenses.

The JIP, in exchange for its cooperation in passing this fiscal year’s budget, obtained an agreement from the ruling parties to make high school education free, but no stable fiscal source for this has been secured.

Whether in forming a coalition or cooperating on a selective basis, it is essential that the CDPJ and the JIP are prepared to take responsibility for securing the fiscal resources necessary to back up their policy measures.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug. 23, 2025)