May 22, 2019

The Japanese Communist Party and other pro-constitutional parties on May 21 agreed to field a JCP member as a joint opposition candidate in the single-seat district in Fukui Prefecture in the House of Councilors election scheduled for July.

On the day, JCP Secretariat Head Koike Akira and secretaries general of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Democratic Party of the People, the parliamentary group of independents (the Reviewing Group on Social Security Policy), and Social Democratic Party met in the Diet building. They reached an agreement on the nomination of unified opposition candidates in Fukui and seven other single-member constituencies in the Upper House election. As the opposition parties had already chosen joint candidates in three other constituencies, including in Okinawa, electoral collaboration was realized for eleven constituencies in total so far among all 32 single-seat constituencies.

At a press conference after the meeting, Koike commented on the agreement that JCP member Yamada Kazuo will run as the joint opposition candidate in the Fukui constituency in the July election. He said, “In the past talks on opposition parties’ electoral collaboration, the JCP repeatedly underscored the importance of the principle of give-and-take and maintained that no party should be urged to make concessions all the time. In this context, the agreement on Yamada’s candidacy is a step forward.”

Koike also said that the opposition parties should not only support unified candidates, but also make joint efforts in campaigning.

Koike pointed out that the Abe government is the worst among successive Liberal Democratic Party-led governments in terms of compliance with the Constitution and respect to constitutionalism. He added that the opposition parties’ electoral cooperation is aimed at pushing the ruling block into a minority position in the Diet. Koike stressed that if the pro-constitution forces succeed in obtaining victories in single-member constituencies, they will have better chances of winning seats in multi-seat constituencies and proportional representation blocks, which will contribute to a replacement of the current ruling block.

Past related articles:
> JCP and CDPJ agree to step up talks for fielding joint opposition candidates in national elections [April 27, 2019]
> Opposition parties on televised program discuss how to beat LDP [January 30, 2019]