Ruling party, coalition partner slam Koike’s Kibo no To, DP as populists

October 1, 2017

TOKYO- Senior officials of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito, in a television program Sunday, criticized as a populist move the effective merger of the Democratic Party into Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike's Kibo no To (Party of Hope).

Kibo no To, launched by Koike last week, is set to endorse some DP members as its official candidates in the Oct. 22 House of Representatives election "despite differences in their security policies and views on the Constitution," the coalition side argued.

On the other hand, Kibo no To highlighted its policy of realizing politics with no strings attached.

In the NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.) program, LDP election chief Ryu Shionoya pointed out that Kibo no To's philosophy and policies are unclear to voters.

"In the past, a party failed (to properly manage national policies) after gaining power by taking a populist stance and pledging to do something impossible," Shionoya said, referring to the change of government in 2009 after the Lower House election victory by the Democratic Party of Japan, now the DP.

Yosuke Takagi, Komeito's deputy secretary-general, said that Kibo no To's move to give tickets to DP members only if they vow to support constitutional amendments and controversial new security laws will confuse voters.

To win the rising party's endorsement, lawmakers who were opposing the security legislation as unconstitutional have turned to back the laws, he noted.

Meanwhile, Kibo no To's Masaru Wakasa said, "Politics must be freed to prevent Japan from falling." "We aim to create a two-party system and vie with the LDP," he stressed. Jiji Press