Japan CDP’s Head Rejects Grand Coalition with LDP

Jiji Press

13:43 JST, January 5, 2025

ISE, Mie (Jiji Press) — Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, on Saturday rejected the idea of forming a grand coalition with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

“We want to focus on uniting the power of opposition parties to change the government,” Noda told a news conference in Ise, Mie Prefecture.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the LDP’s president, said in a radio program broadcast Wednesday, “There should be an option to form a grand coalition.”

Noda said, “A grand coalition is an option conceivable when there is a pandemic or a major crisis. We don’t think about it in ordinary times.”

“We’ll discuss with the ruling bloc to implement policies, but we’ll prepare for the House of Councillors election as an opposition party,” Seiji Maehara, coleader of opposition Japan Innovation Party, told a news conference also in Ise. The upper house election is set to take place in summer.

Motohisa Furukawa, executive of the opposition Democratic Party for the People, told a separate press conference in Ise that the DPFP has no intention to join the LDP-led ruling camp.