LDP Presidential Hopefuls Play Up Opposition Party Connections

By Mai Fukuda and Takahito Higuchi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

1:00 JST, September 14, 2025

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential hopefuls are increasingly conscious of their connections with opposition parties in making moves toward the party leadership election to choose Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s successor.

They are apparently aware that it will be essential for the LDP to collaborate with parts of the opposition to manage the government as it has become a minority ruling party in both houses of the Diet.

One key criterion for choosing the party’s new leader from the candidates will be how they plan to build relations with opposition parties.

Former LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi canceled scheduled events in his constituency in order to shoot a YouTube video with Fumitake Fujita, co-representative of the Japan Innovation Party. Motegi, who became the first to declare his bid for the leadership race, accepted Fujita’s proposal to do so.

Fujita plans to call on other candidates to shoot videos with him. “They should be aware that they bear a different responsibility than during the time when the coalition government of the LDP and Komeito held a majority in the Diet,” Fujita said at a news conference on Friday, indicating that his party would like to evaluate individual candidates’ potential.

When declaring his candidacy, Motegi mentioned the names of the JIP and the Democratic Party for the People as possible additional coalition partners. As such, there is a growing interest among LDP members in whether their next leader will have any connections with the two opposition parties. How to maintain a proper distance with opposition parties might become one of the qualifications expected for the party’s next leader.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi dined with former JIP leader Nobuyuki Baba on Tuesday night. According to sources, it was the first time for them to dine together, and former Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Ryota Takeda acted as a go-between. Hayashi is also known to have close ties with Takashi Endo, head of the JIP’s Diet affairs committee.

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shinjiro Koizumi is also playing up his connection with the JIP. In late August, he spent about two hours touring around the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo venue with Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura, who heads the JIP.

As for the DPFP, Koizumi met the party’s Secretary General Kazuya Shimba at the ministry building on Wednesday to discuss agriculture, forestry and fisheries policies.

During his tenure as LDP secretary general, Motegi attempted to promote an alliance among the LDP, Komeito and the DPFP with a view to forming a three-party coalition. In February, he held a discussion with DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki on a YouTube program.

Sanae Takaichi and Takayuki Kobayashi each of whom is a former minister in charge of economic security, have not made any particular contacts with opposition parties recently. But they plan to invite those with strong connections with opposition parties into their camps. Former Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, who is experienced in dealing with Diet affairs, is expected to take a key post in Kobayashi’s camp. With the appointment, Kobayashi apparently hopes to promote his caliber for negotiating with opposition parties.

Opposition parties are closely watching the policies and positions of Ishiba’s potential successors. In a press conference on Friday, the JIP’s Fujita said he would like to cautiously assess individual candidates’ policies, while Shimba of the DPFP said at another press conference, “We are ready to collaborate with parties that will understand and help realize our policies.”

However, overly generous concessions to opposition parties in terms of policy could raise frustrations among the LDP members. Therefore, attention is expected to focus on how candidates plan to strike a balance.

“It will be an extraordinary presidential election, in which opposition parties have influence,” a former Cabinet member of the LDP said with a sigh.