Japan’s Opposition Parties Struggle to Draw Path Toward Election Cooperation; Difficult Challenges Lie Ahead for Each Party

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:40 JST, January 11, 2026

Many members of opposition parties were caught off guard by news of a dissolution of the House of Representatives at the start of the ordinary Diet session, scheduled to be convened Jan. 23.

With election preparations largely incomplete, the parties have yet to come up with a pathway toward electoral cooperation.

“We aim to become the largest party in the Diet and form a centrist administration, and we want to accelerate our preparations,” Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda told reporters in Chiba City on Saturday.

His party plans to field about 200 candidates with an eye to changing the government. However, it still needs to select about 30.

The CDPJ, which had assumed a lower house election would be held in April or later after the fiscal 2026 budget was passed, had just begun discussions on revising its basic policies on security, energy and other issues, aiming to unite opposition parties with a centrist approach after Komeito left the ruling coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party.

“We will narrow down unified candidates [from among opposition parties] as much as possible,” Noda said.

However, time is short, and senior CDPJ members have a negative view of the plan, with one saying, “opposition cooperation is nearly impossible.”

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party for the People aims to field 100 candidates but currently has only picked about 40.

“We’re aiming for 51 seats and 9 million votes in the proportional representation segment [of the lower house election] and want to accelerate the process to select potential candidates for all prefectures,” DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki, who has a negative view on cooperating with the CDPJ, said Saturday.

The challenge for the DPFP lies in coming up with new flagship policies. Achieving its current flagship policies, such as raising the income tax exemption threshold, is now within reach thanks to its negotiations with the coalition government, so the party is focusing on formulating campaign pledges.

Within Komeito, there is little momentum toward cooperating with opposition parties. The party will likely focus on the proportional representation race, with a senior party official saying Komeito aims to win “over 6 million votes,” which would surpass the 5.96 million votes it gained in the 2024 lower house election. The party expects that result to be a springboard for restoring its strength.

The challenge for Komeito lies in handling four single-seat constituencies, where party executives were elected as lawmakers through the electoral cooperation with the LDP.

“Without cooperating with the LDP, we cannot win in single-seat constituencies,” one member said.

In this regard, the party has difficult decisions to make.

As for Sanseito, which made significant gains in the 2025 House of Councillors election, it aims to win up to 40 seats in the lower house election and has already selected over 60 candidates.

“We will pick 50 additional officially candidates,” Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya posted on his X account on Saturday.

The conservative Sanseito has to confront an LDP with a stronger conservative stance under the leadership of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, so how well the party will fare in the election will be a focus of attention.