LDP-JIP Coalition Agreement: Parties Must Learn Lessons from Recent Policy Talks

Editorial

14:51 JST, October 21, 2025

It is commendable that the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party have now agreed to form a new coalition government and put in place a framework for policy implementation.

It is more important than anything to put an end to the prolonged political vacuum as soon as possible and restore political stability.

LDP President Sanae Takaichi has now become certain to be named the first female prime minister in Japan’s constitutional history.

However, the road ahead is fraught with challenges. Even with the LDP and the JIP cooperating, they fall short of a majority in both the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors. How Takaichi will lead the minority ruling parties to tackle mounting domestic and international issues will be the first test of her competence.

There are other issues as well. During policy negotiations between the LDP and the JIP, the latter presented a 12-point policy agenda including reductions in social insurance premiums and the realization of a second capital initiative. Ultimately, the LDP accepted most of these demands.

However, this agenda contains several items that are difficult to implement, others unsuitable to be part of the administration’s national governing vision, and some that reflect questionable thinking.

For example, JIP leader Hirofumi Yoshimura presented a reduction of the number of seats in the lower house as an “absolute condition” for the coalition agreement.

While bringing up the reduction appears to be aimed at promoting the JIP’s slogan of “self-sacrificing reforms,” reforming the number of seats and electoral systems is fundamentally about building the foundation for democracy. It can hardly be called appropriate for an issue that should be debated in the Diet to be advanced only by the governing parties.

The very notion that fewer Diet members are better likely comes from the assumption that politicians are beings of no significance. The JIP lacks the fundamental understanding that Diet members represent the people.

Furthermore, setting the consumption tax rate on foodstuffs at zero for two years would reduce the nation’s tax revenue. Meanwhile, the plan to realize a second capital, with Osaka in mind to be designated, is expected to involve massive public works expenditures. This would upset the balance between revenue and expenditure.

When Takaichi requested of Yoshimura that his party members join in a new cabinet, the JIP limited its cooperation to supporting the government from outside the cabinet. Doesn’t this likely reflect the JIP’s own prediction that the agreed items would be difficult to achieve?

Parties have been wavering over what form a coalition should take in the two weeks since Takaichi became LDP president.

The JIP pressed unreasonable demands on the LDP, continuing to test the waters on whether the LDP would accept them. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan attempted to come up with a unified opposition candidate for the prime ministerial election, without engaging in discussing for policy agreements.

As Japan has entered an era of multiparty politics, how should a coalition be structured? Both ruling and opposition parties must learn from the lessons left by the various recent negotiations.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Oct. 21, 2025)