Tag - komeito

 
 

KOMEITO

Officials of the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and Nippon Ishin no Kai hold talks on the tuition-free program for high schoolers at the parliamentary building on Friday.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 3, 2025
Ruling bloc and Nippon Ishin affirm foreigners’ tuition-free ineligibility
Whether foreign students are eligible for the program will be decided on the basis of their respective residence status.
Komeito head Tetsuo Saito says his party cannot form a coalition government with any party that doesn’t align itself with its moderate conservative policies.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 2, 2025
LDP presidential election could be turning point for Komeito
After Saturday’s vote, the junior coalition partner will have to adjust to a new LDP, one whose values might differ from its own.
Liberal Democratic Party presidential candidates attend a debate at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 26, 2025
‘Speed dating’ — with an LDP twist
It feels like one of the speed dating events that used to be on Japanese television years ago, where the candidates court prospective partners one after the other.
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi speaks in Tokyo on Thursday. He is attempting to become Liberal Democratic Party president for the second time.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 12, 2025
Will a more conservative leader emerge from the LDP presidential election?
Conservative members of the party are looking to elect such a leader, but there is a possibility that their votes might be split between two presidential hopefuls.
Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the opposition Democratic Party for the People, in Tokyo on Nov. 1, 2024
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 10, 2025
Who might the LDP woo once it elects its next president?
Short of a majority in both chambers of parliament, the ruling party needs an opposition party’s support to elect its leader as prime minister.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike (right) and Takayuki Morimura, head of Tomin First no Kai, during the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election campaign in Tokyo in June
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 8, 2025
Tokyo Gov. Koike seen keeping three-party alliance involving LDP
Attention is also turning to whether the Tokyo governor will seek cooperation with the Democratic Party for the People, which won its first seats in the metropolitan assembly.
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama (left) and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attend a party executive meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 4, 2025
Seeking Upper House majority, LDP eyes support from independents
The 121-strong ruling coalition needs just three more seats for a majority in the chamber.
Voters look at posters of candidates for an Upper House election outside a polling station in Tokyo on July 20. The young abandoned the ruling Liberal Democratic Party for other conservative and newer parties in the recent poll. REUTERS
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 31, 2025
What is a ‘Japanese conservative’ in this day and age?
My view is that younger voters saw the LDP as a group of elderly, self-absorbed elitists who were out of touch with the issues that mattered to them.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito, will screen government agencies and ministries' requests for tax reform at their respective tax panels, aiming to draw up guidelines later this year.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 30, 2025
Government agencies draw up fiscal year 2026 tax reform requests
The ruling coalition will screen the requests, aiming to draw up late this year tax reform guidelines for the fiscal year starting next April.
Nippon Ishin no Kai leader Hirofumi Yoshimura (center), Secretary-General Hiroshi Nakatsuka (center right) and other executives meet in Osaka on Aug. 12.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 28, 2025
Amid LDP turmoil, speculation grows over possible tie-up with Nippon Ishin
Recent moves that put LDP-friendly executives into leadership positions seem to signal that Nippon Ishin wants to draw closer to the LDP.
Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15. Political commentator Toru Hashimoto has suggested that Takaichi ought to lead a group of like-minded hawkish politicians out of the Liberal Democratic Party and form their own party.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 22, 2025
Is the LDP’s catch-all approach to politics still effective?
With smaller, more ideologically unified parties gaining voter support, some critics say the LDP should split into different groups.
Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito speaks to reporters in Tokyo after Upper House election voting finished on July 20.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 11, 2025
Komeito struggling after crushing Upper House election defeat
Some have been calling on Komeito to withdraw from costly races in constituencies and put resources into proportional representation.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba answers questions from Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda during a Lower House Budget Committee session on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 6, 2025
Ruling parties to discuss corporate donation issue with CDP and DPP
Now that the ruling parties are short of a majority in both chambers, the coalition is set to meet halfway with the opposition in an effort to kick-start the stalled debate.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba addresses the media at the vote-counting center in the Liberal Democratic Party’s headquarters in Tokyo on July 20.  
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 1, 2025
Is this the end of Japan’s ‘big tent’ parties?
The big winners of the day in the Upper House election were newer conservative parties.
Parliamentary affairs chiefs of the ruling and opposition parties on Wednesday at the parliament building after signing an agreement to abolish the provisional add-on gasoline tax
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2025
Ruling and opposition parties agree to scrap provisional gas tax by year-end
The parties aim to enact a bill to scrap the tax at an extraordinary session of parliament expected to be convened in autumn.
The Liberal Democratic Party’s historic Upper House defeat leaves the party fragmented and searching for a capable leader who can reunite conservatives, modernize its appeal, deliver real policies and rebuild its internal power structure.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2025
Who will save the Liberal Democratic Party?
The LDP is now faced with two fundamental questions: what tasks must it accomplish to restore its political dominance and who is actually capable of accomplishing them?
Japan’s ruling LDP-Komeito bloc lost big, smaller parties gained ground and the country now faces a more fractured, uncertain political future.
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2025
Voter revolt shatters Japan’s ruling coalition and empowers smaller parties
The big winners were smaller, newer parties on the right, Sanseito and the Democratic Party for the People.
Japan’s ruling coalition is weakening as rising populist parties like Sanseito gain support, raising concerns that Japan could shift toward unstable multiparty coalition politics similar to Israel’s fragmented Knesset.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2025
Is Japan drifting toward fragmented and ineffective politics?
In a system with many small parties, even minor players can hold the balance of power in forming coalitions.
Komeito head Tetsuo Saito speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 22, 2025
Upper House election confirms inexorable decline of voting blocs
Unaffiliated voters were the kingmakers in Sunday’s election.
Upper House votes being counted on Sunday. The Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition lost its majority in the upper chamber of parliament, but could still be effective in thwarting the opposition.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 21, 2025
Consumption tax cut not a given even after Upper House election
Political and economic realities suggest that opposition policies will not skate through.

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