Japan Press Weekly

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2016 March 2 - 8 [POLITICS]

3 opposition parties endorse JCP-DPJ joint candidate in Miyagi

Three opposition parties (the Japan Innovation, Social Democratic, and People’s Life parties) announced on March 4 that they will support the candidate that the Japanese Communist Party and the Democratic Party of Japan decided to jointly field in the single-seat constituency in Miyagi Prefecture in this summer’s Upper House election.

This is the first time that the five opposition parties have agreed to support the same candidate in a national election.

On that day, secretaries-general of the five opposition parties held a meeting in the Diet building. This is the second meeting held to discuss election partnership to abolish the unconstitutional national security legislation.

In the meeting, representatives of the three opposition parties expressed their approval of the policy agreement which was concluded a couple of days before between the JCP prefectural committee and the DPJ local chapter. The three parties decided to endorse Sakurai Mitsuru, the opposition candidate in Miyagi backed by the JCP and the DPJ.

The five opposition parties also negotiated on how to run their joint candidates in other single-member constituencies across the country. They talked about whether it is possible to incorporate the following items into their common campaign platform: cancellation of the consumption tax increase slated for April 2017; opposition to the restart of offline nuclear reactors; and abandonment of the planned construction of a U.S. military base in Okinawa.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, JCP Secretariat Head Yamashita Yoshiki referred to Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s recent remarks that the Upper House election will be a showdown between the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties and the DPJ-JCP alliance. Yamashita stressed, “It is significant for all the five opposition parties, not just the JCP and the DPJ, to unite in order to overthrow the Abe government.”

Past related article:
> 5 opposition parties begin talks on electoral cooperation [February 24, 2016]