Partial Union over Policies

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) agreed on mutually promoting discussion over policies to implement budget and other bills in the Diet. Losing majority in the House of Representatives as the result of general election held on October 27th, the LDP decided to maintain its administration with “partial” cooperation between current leading coalition with Komeito and the DPP. 

Suffering from bitter defeat in the general election, the LDP significantly reduced its seats in the House. The leading coalition, fallen short of simple majority wanting 18 more seats, found the DPP with 28 seats to be a partner for securing majority not only to pass every bill including annual budget, but also to win the election for nominating the prime minister.

 

DPP has announced that they would vote for its leader, Yuichiro Tamaki, in the election, rather than joining framework of opposition parties to elect the leader of Constitutional Democratica Party, Yoshihiko Noda, for next prime minister. In case of run-off election between Noda and LDP president, Shigeru Ishiba, Ishiba is likely to win when 28 lawmakers with the DPP vote for Tamaki, because those 28 votes will be invalid and not counted.

 

The LDP considered some choices, including invitation of the DPP in the Cabinet or establishing a firm framework by exchanging a document for setting a table for policy discussion to implement campaign platform of the DPP. However, the DPP rejected close relationship with the LDP, considering criticisms from their supporters who voted against LDP’s unilateral control over politics in Japan.

 

It is expected that the LDP, Komeito and the DPP is going to form a “partial union,” in which the participants discuss specific issues, whenever they want to do.

 

There are some examples of partial union in the past. When it lost its majority after the election of the House of Councillors in 1998, the LDP built a coalition with the Liberal Party. However, the coalition could not reach a majority, and the Diet became out of control in the financial crisis brought by bankruptcy of Hokkaido Takushoku Bank and Yamaichi Securities. The LDP decided to include Komeito in the coalition to stabilize politics.

 

The partial union between the LDP and DPP is also expected to be an unstable framework. The DPP require raising a threshold of 1.03 million of annual income to impose income tax to 1.78 million. To invite the DPP into the cooperation with the leading coalition, the LDP needs to accept that request. However, it is estimated that raising the threshold will cost some trillion yen in national budget. The LDP will always face a choice between majority and unrealistic request from the DPP.

 

“If the LDP rejects our request, we do not approve LDP policies. No bill or budget will pass the House,” told Tamaki. It is not clear how long that framework of cooperation will last.

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