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The differences between the two opposition parties — the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party for the People — regarding how to deal with the ruling coalition during the extraordinary Diet session are increasing.
The CDPJ appears more confrontational toward the government and ruling parties, which have lost the majority, but the DPFP seems willing to talk with the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito to realize its own policies.
“The government just focused on the size of the budget and did not scrutinize the details,” CDPJ leader Yoshihiko Noda said regarding the supplementary budget bill for this fiscal year at a Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, meeting in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, on Thursday. “We would like to ask the government to downsize the budget.”
The CDPJ is adopting an increasingly stronger attitude, as a senior party member said: “If opposition parties unite, it is possible to pass a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet. Previously, a no-confidence motion was just seen as a performance, but now, it has a different meaning.”
During an extraordinary Diet session, the main opposition party creates a strategy to unite the opposition parties to confront the ruling bloc.
The CDPJ aims to submit an opposition-initiated bill with other opposition parties to again revise the recently revised Political Funds Control Law to include the abolition of donations from companies and organizations.
However, the DPFP is becoming closer with the ruling parties.
The DPFP aims to have the revision of the “¥1.03 million barrier” — the annual income threshold at which income tax must be paid — included in the government’s comprehensive economic package and plans to support the government’s supplementary budget bill based on discussions with the ruling coalition on tax system revisions.
The DPFP is against the opposition-initiated bill envisaged by the CDPJ.
“The issue should be decided through discussions between the ruling and opposition parties,” DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki said.
Tamaki was absent from a meeting of opposition parties to discuss the revision of the Political Funds Control Law on Wednesday.
“We are not breaking away from the opposition bloc, nor are we becoming closer with the ruling bloc,” Tamaki said, insisting that his party maintains equal distance from both sides.
However, some opposition party members are criticizing the DPFP’s attitude of comparing the ruling and opposition blocs.
“If the DPFP looks only at the ruling parties, it will become a part of the ruling bloc,” said Takashi Endo, the Japan Innovation Party’s Diet affairs committee chairman.
Rengo, which supports both the CDPJ and the DPFP, is calling for the two parties to cooperate ahead of next summer’s House of Councillors election.
However, Tamaki has repeatedly said that coordinating candidates with a party whose fundamental policies are not consistent with the DPFP would be an “ununified union.”
Under such circumstances, it is unclear how discussions will unfold.
