November 7, 2018

Representatives of opposition parties in Iwate visited a Japanese Communist Party's Diet office on November 6 and requested that headquarter-level interparty negotiations be promoted in order to field a united opposition candidate in the Iwate single-seat constituency in the next year's Upper House election.

Representing the local Democratic Party for the People, JCP, Liberal Party, and Social Democratic Party, they explained to JCP Vice Chair Ichida Tadayoshi and JCP Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji that they regularly meet and discuss local policies and ways to bring an end to the Abe government.

After discussions, they said, they decided that their united candidate should be chosen at least by the end of this year and that each party's central committee or head office should immediately start interparty negotiations to achieve this.

Ichida in responding to their request said, "I absolutely agree with you. I will ask the party leadership to set out Tokyo-level interparty talks and also to take into account local-level discussions and local circumstances. At the same time, it is important for opposition party central committees to work together when it comes to electoral cooperation in national elections."

Kokuta said, "Also important for the opposition parties is to make concerted Diet efforts concerning such issues as constitutional revision, the consumption tax increase, and immigration control revisions."

Past related articles:
> JCP to other opposition parties: Let's start talks on Upper House electoral cooperation [October 18, 2018]
> JCP in 5th CC Plenum reaffirms need for electoral cooperation [October 15, 2018]