LDP, Komeito renewing coalition partnership after split in Metro poll

October 20, 2017

TOKYO- The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito are renewing their coalition partnership for Sunday's general election, despite unpleasant feelings after Komeito parted company with the LDP in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election in summer.

In the July 2 election for the Tokyo assembly, Komeito agreed to electoral cooperation with Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites first group), a regional political party effectively led by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.

Aided chiefly by the popularity of Koike, all of Komeito's 23 candidates won seats in the metropolitan assembly, while the LDP ended up with a record low of 23 seats, down sharply from its pre-election strength of 57 seats.

The LDP and Komeito, nonetheless, have maintained their solidarity in national politics, carefully making backstage arrangements for cooperation especially in single-seat constituencies in Tokyo for Sunday's election for the House of Representatives, the all-important lower chamber of Japan's parliament, informed sources said.

"Considering its achievements, the coalition government of the LDP and Komeito is only one choice (in the election)," former Komeito leader Akihiro Ota said in a recent stump speech in front of Otsuka Station of East Japan Railway Co. or JR East.

Ota, 72, filed his candidacy in the No. 12 constituency in Tokyo, which will be contested by two rivals, including Saori Ikeuchi, a 35-year-old candidate of the Japanese Communist Party.

Groundwork for LDP-Komeito cooperation in the Lower House election was not necessarily smooth.

"If the LDP refuses to work with us in the Tokyo No. 12 constituency or proportional representation blocs, we will allow our members in Tokyo to vote independently," a Komeito official told the LDP just before the Lower House was dissolved on Sept. 28 for the snap election, according to a ruling camp source.

Komeito took an aggressive stance to the LDP after Koike, who was then preparing to create a new party for national politics, informally told Komeito that she would not field a rival candidate against Ota, sources familiar with the situation said.

"We have no choice but to work with Komeito," an LDP official said, reflecting fresh memories among executives of the LDP Tokyo chapter on the party's landslide defeat in the July metropolitan assembly election.

But other LDP officials called for rejecting an offer from Komeito for their cooperation in the generation election, the sources said. Losing support from Komeito, the LDP won only one of the seven single-seat constituencies in the Tokyo assembly election. Jiji Press