Japan's Chudo and Komeito Parties Push for 3-Party Alliance, CDP Remains Cautious

(CNA Tokyo, May 18, Comprehensive Foreign Report) Japan's opposition centrist reform coalition (Chudo) and the Komeito party have formally started to create an atmosphere for a three-party integration of Chudo, Komeito, and the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP). The Chudo party leader attended a Komeito local meeting for the first time yesterday and called for unity. The Yomiuri Shimbun pointed out that Chudo and Komeito, looking ahead to next spring's local elections, intend to deepen cooperation at the local level and further promote integration. However, the CDP is currently cautious, and successful integration will not be easy. Junya Ogawa, the representative (party leader) of Chudo, was invited by the Komeito's Akita prefectural headquarters yesterday to attend a "political and economic discussion meeting" in Akita City, where he strongly appealed, "The cooperation of the three parties has great significance, and I strongly reiterate this here." This was Ogawa's first time attending a Komeito local meeting as the Chudo representative. Ogawa also called out to Komeito's local council members, saying, "The firmness of our initial intention (to advocate for integration) is being tested." Chudo is composed of House of Representatives members mainly from the CDP and Komeito, aiming to gather centrist forces to counter the strongly conservative government of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. However, Chudo suffered a crushing defeat in the February House of Representatives election, with its seats drastically reduced compared to before the election. Ogawa's stance is to promote the integration of Chudo, Komeito, and the CDP. He emphasized at a press conference after the meeting, "The most ideal state is to move towards integration." Komeito representative Toshiko Takeya also attended the press conference with Ogawa and stated, "I hope we can become one party." The Yomiuri Shimbun's analysis suggests that the urgency for integration on both sides is due to the consideration that if they do not achieve results in next year's local elections, the momentum for integration may weaken. For Chudo, whose local organizations are not yet well-established, it also hopes to rely on Komeito's local votes. Komeito, which has a local councilor base of 3,000, also attaches great importance to local elections, viewing them as battles on par with national elections. A senior Chudo party member explained, "Neither side wants to face local elections out of step, and there is a shared sense of crisis to avoid electoral defeat." The report's analysis indicates that even if the central leaderships of Chudo, Komeito, and the CDP agree to cooperate in local elections, some council members in the CDP's local organizations are currently keeping their distance. Yesterday, some CDP local council members were also invited to the Komeito meeting in Akita City, but one of them revealed, "Komeito's organizational power is attractive, but some of our supporters have a strong aversion to Komeito." Furthermore, the CDP's central leadership is not very enthusiastic about integration at the moment. CDP representative Shunichi Mizuoka once stated, "There is also the option of (not integrating)." The CDP has clear differences with Chudo and Komeito on fundamental policies such as defense and the constitution. There are also opinions within the CDP that "it's better to fight alone than to force an integration, as it would be more understandable to supporters." The leadership of Chudo and Komeito intends to pave the way for closing the gap with the CDP by diligently visiting local areas. In addition to Komeito, Ogawa plans to increase visits to the CDP's local organizations, with a visit to the CDP's Ishikawa prefectural chapter scheduled for this month. A Komeito executive expressed hope, saying, "I hope Chudo's executives will visit local organizations and try to build up the atmosphere for integration from the grassroots." (Translator: Yang Wei-ching) 1150518