Tokyo, 01 June, /AJMEDIA/
The leader of the Komeito party pledged Tuesday to remain in coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party despite recent disagreements during negotiations to coordinate their candidates for the next lower house election.
Natsuo Yamaguchi’s remarks came amid speculation that Komeito, backed by Japan’s biggest lay Buddhist group Soka Gakkai, may dissolve its decades-long alliance with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s LDP if the discussions on fielding candidates break down.
After meeting with Kishida at the prime minister’s office, Yamaguchi said, “We have confirmed we will sustain our collaboration by cherishing the significance and broad perspective of the coalition,” adding that talks between the two parties will continue.
Yamaguchi met with Kishida after Komeito decided last week that the centrist party will not recommend LDP candidates in single-seat constituencies in Tokyo, while giving up its plan to field its own candidate in the newly established 28th district of the capital.
Komeito, which takes a different stance on diplomatic and security policies from the LDP with more pacifist inclinations, has become frustrated with the conservative party’s insistence on running its candidate in the new Tokyo district in spite of the junior partner’s strong desire to secure the seat.
Yamaguchi quoted Kishida as saying that the premier has instructed LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi and other senior party members to respond to negotiations on candidates in a “polite” manner.
On Tuesday, Motegi and his Komeito counterpart Keiichi Ishii held talks over the issue, days after they met last Thursday, but failed to find common ground again, lawmakers said, underscoring the deepening discord between the two parties.
Motegi, meanwhile, told Ishii that the LDP would support the candidates endorsed by Komeito in a district in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo, and one in Aichi, Japan’s fourth-largest prefecture by population. Ishii expressed appreciation to Motegi for the decision.
The LDP and Komeito have been discussing for months how to respond to a redrawing of the electoral map under legislation enacted late last year to narrow the vote disparity between densely and sparsely populated House of Representatives constituencies.
The negotiations have recently accelerated as more lawmakers have begun to expect that Kishida will dissolve the lower house for a snap election in the near future to strengthen his political base.
The revision will add 10 single-seat electoral districts to five prefectures, including Tokyo, in the lower house, while cutting one from each of the 10 prefectures.
The LDP and Komeito, which initially formed a coalition government from 1999 to 2009 and later regained power together in 2012, have worked together on candidates in previous elections. The LDP has relied on votes from members of Soka Gakkai, Komeito’s powerful support base.
In exchange for electoral cooperation, Komeito has actively lobbied its conservative partner to promote lavish policies catering to its supporters, such as cash handouts and other social welfare-related programs.
