Upper House Election: CDPJ Lawmakers Criticize Party’s Upper House Election Summary, Some Call for Executives to Take Responsibility

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:06 JST, August 23, 2025

Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers voiced criticism about their party’s draft document summarizing the latest House of Councillors election on Friday.

Some members urged party executives to take responsibility of the result in which the CDPJ could only secure 22 contested seats, leaving its overall total unchanged. One said that the executives should admit that the election result was effectively a loss for the major opposition party.

The CDPJ presented its interim overview of the election result at its informal general meeting of lawmakers from both the House of Representatives and the upper house.

At the beginning of the meeting, CDPJ leader Yoshihiko Noda said, “We compiled the draft document while listening to opinions of candidates who narrowly failed to win upper house seats. I would like to have a more in-depth summary.”

The draft document did mention that the number of constituency seats controlled by the CDPJ did not increase as expected and that support for the party in the proportional representation segment was also below expectations.

“We could not win in the election. This has resulted in the party’s presence as the largest opposition force diminishing,” it said.

Many member lawmakers voiced discontent over the wording, saying, “[The election] was a landslide loss,” and “The sense of urgency [among party executives] over the situation is insufficient.”

Regarding the executive members’ responsibility, some suggested that a fundamental review of the party’s leadership should be carried out. Though Noda presented his intention to implement internal party reforms, attendees said that he did not mention changing executive members.

Based on the opinions of lawmakers, the CDPJ plans to compile the final version of the document as early as Tuesday.