LDP Troubled by Contrasting Top Opposition Forces in Parliament

November 14, 2017

Tokyo- Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party faces a more complex situation for steering parliamentary proceedings as two different parties are now the top opposition forces in the upper and lower chambers.

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, formed by former members of the Democratic Party just before the Oct. 22 election of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, performed well in the poll and became the largest opposition force in the Lower House.

Meanwhile, the DP remains the No. 1 opposition party in the House of Councillors, the upper chamber.

As the CDPJ and the DP have limited communications with each other, the LDP is acting as a go-between for the two parties and the coordination procedures have become cumbersome.

It is effectively the first time for two different parties to be the top opposition forces in the Upper House and the Lower House since the start of Japan's so-called 1955 political system, which pitted the ruling LDP against the Japan Socialist Party.

In 1994-1997, an era of party realignment in Japanese politics, the two chambers' largest opposition parliamentary groups led by the now-defunct New Frontier Party had somewhat different member compositions but acted in coordination with each other in the running of parliament, unlike between the CDPJ and the DP today.

For example, before the current special parliamentary session was convened, the LDP held discussions with the CDPJ in the Lower House about how long the session should run and how government-sponsored bills should be handled. But the CDPJ did not get in touch with the DP to pass on what it discussed with the LDP.

The DP thus learned of what was going on in the Lower House by getting information from LDP lawmakers in the Upper House. As a result, parliamentary schedule adjustments between the ruling and opposition camps took time and continued until the day of the session's convening on Nov. 1.

To fix a specific schedule for parliamentary deliberations on a favoritism scandal involving a school operator headed by a friend of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, LDP parliamentary affairs chief Hiroshi Moriyama said Friday his party will communicate with the DP in the Upper House, hoping to avoid a situation similar to the one before the parliamentary session was convened.

The broken ties between the CDPJ and the DP reflect the fact that Tetsuro Fukuyama, an Upper House lawmaker of the CDPJ, was not allowed to stay in a DP parliamentary group after he left the party to join the CDPJ.

CDPJ leader Yukio Edano said the DP's refusal to keep Fukuyama in the group is an indication that the party does not intend to cooperate with the CDPJ.

To enact such key bills as one to revise the law on government workers' remuneration during the ongoing parliamentary session of only 39 days through Dec. 9, the LDP will continue to need to make adjustments with both the CDPJ and the DP.

"We have to do twice the amount of work," a senior LDP official complained. Jiji Press