Five Councils for Maintenance of Coalition

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) launched five discussion bodies to discuss policies described in the agreement for forming a coalition with Japan Innovation Party (JIP) on October 20th. The policies were mainly proposed by JIP as the causes of joining the coalition with LDP, the party to which JIP had been criticizing as an opposition party. However, most agenda have no limit of time for fulfillment. 

JIP identifies itself as a party for reform. The party imposes the LDP its own conservative policies, calling them political reform, to appeal to the voters. The LDP and JIP established councils for five themes: reduction of Diet seats, management of political donation from companies and organizations, constitutional amendment, reform of governmental systems and social security reform. The LDP is basically reluctant to promote those JIP agenda.

 

Both parties shared a notion that they would “try to” submit and pass a bill for reducing 10 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives in the extraordinary session of the Diet, which will close on December 17th. In the first meetingfor Diet seat reduction, they reconfirmed the agreement and internal system of each party to discuss it. The LDP has some argument inside that the issue should be discussed with other election reforms, including revision of single-seat districts.

 

The LDP Secretary General, Shun-ichi Suzuki, said that it would be difficult for them to pass the bill by the end of the session. JIP’s co-leader, Fumitake Fujita, admitted that it would be impossible to conclude everything about electoral reform. Although JIP take this issue as the most important agenda between JIP and the LDP, it is likely that Diet seat reduction is nothing more than a cause for JIP to stay in coalition with the LDP.

 

On regulation of donation from companies and organizations, the LDP and JIP are separated far from an agreement. While JIP demands banning the donation, the LDP hopes to continue to receive the donation by limiting the reform for enhancement of transparency. The first meeting of their council was closed without scheduling their next meeting.

 

Both parties share a necessity of amendment of the Constitution of Japan. The discussion ranges from creating an “emergency clause” for disaster or contingency to adding description of Self-defense Force in Article 9. In their first meeting for constitutional amendment, both parties agreed on accelerating discussion in each party on this issue. While they target submitting a bill for the amendment by the end of March 2027, they do not have the two-third majority in both Houses of the Diet to pass the bill.

 

The reform of government system is about “backup capital initiative” for JIP, which main office is not in Tokyo, but Osaka. The LDP is not much interested in this issue. The initiative is about building up a function of capital, in case Tokyo cannot work as the capital of Japan with a natural disaster or military attacks by foreign country. It is undeniable that the issue is not as urgent as other issues such as political reform or management of price inflation. In the first meeting, JIP urged the LDP to pass a related bill in the Diet session in 2026. Both parties agreed on listing up talking points in the next meeting.

 

Social security reform is another crucial issue for JIP. JIP hopes to reduce payment of working generation for social security, which is mostly spent for aged people. A specific issue JIP advocate is to exclude the cost for over the counter (OTC) medicines, which is qualitatively close to commercial drugs in drug stores, from being funded by health insurance. Both parties shared a target to conclude that issue by the end of 2025.

 

Although those five councils embarked on implementation of the coalition agreement, they have no perspective to reach a goal. The consensus between them is to maintain their coalition as long as they discuss those issues.

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