LDP Secretary General Hopes DPFP Will Join Coalition; Says Addition of 3rd Party Would Bring Stability to Politics

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:00 JST, January 7, 2026

Shunichi Suzuki, the secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, on Tuesday expressed a desire to expand his party’s ruling coalition by adding the Democratic Party for the People to it.

“My hope is that the creation of a three-party ruling coalition will bring some stability to Japanese politics,” Suzuki said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Toward the end of last year, the LDP agreed with the DPFP on raising the “annual income barrier,” the threshold from which income tax is levied. “We have accumulated mutual trust,” Suzuki said of the two parties. “I dearly hope our party will gain the DPFP’s cooperation to restore stability to Japanese politics.”

On the same day, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi gave an address to greet participants at a meeting marking the first business day of the New Year at the LDP headquarters.

“Japan can still keep growing. Let’s fulfill our responsibilities for the future,” she said, after stressing the need for crisis management investment — proactively investing in measures to prevent and manage future crises — which she regards as a pillar of her growth strategy.

The ruling coalition currently fails to secure a majority in the House of Councillors.

“[In the upper house], we are a minority ruling party and having difficulty managing [the government], thereby making things harder for all of us. Let’s join hands and work together,” Takaichi said.