Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, right, meets with Tetsuo Saito, the leader of junior coalition partner Komeito. (Takeshi Iwashita)

Officials of junior coalition partner Komeito are increasingly feeling overlooked by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, despite their need for cooperation in the Upper House and Tokyo metropolitan assembly elections this summer.

After the coalition lost its majority in the Lower House last October, the LDP has been trying to secure support of the opposition Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) and the Democratic Party for the People to ensure the Diet passes the fiscal 2025 budget.

Komeito now feels shunned by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s party.

With its background as a pacifist party, Komeito has sent representatives to two past meetings of states parties to the United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

Komeito asked the government to send officials as observers to the TPNW meeting scheduled for March in New York.

Ishiba said it would be difficult for the government to attend as an observer since Japan is protected under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. But he said he would consider sending LDP representatives.

However, LDP Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama later said the party was not thinking about sending anyone to the meeting.

Hearing that comment, a Komeito executive said, “I have not felt so angry in a long time.”

The two parties also held different views toward the move to summon a former official of an LDP faction to testify as an unsworn witness in the Diet.

The former official was in charge of accounting at the faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which had accumulated by far the largest amount of money from fund-raising parties that were distributed to members but never reported.

The LDP was opposed to the move.

The opposition sought to call the unsworn witness by majority vote, but Komeito did not stay for the vote, incensed that the principle of unanimous agreement was not being upheld.

One factor behind Komeito’s frustration is that LDP officials feel comfortable that the junior party will not leave the coalition it has been a part of for about 25 years.

Komeito has taken action on its own.

A case in point is revision of tax laws to raise the minimum level at which income tax is imposed.

Ruling coalition officials have met with DPP officials who insist the level be drastically raised from the current 1.03 million yen ($6,730).

The heads of the coalition parties’ tax system research commissions met with the DPP on Feb. 7.

But after it was over, only Kazuyoshi Akaba, the Komeito chair, met with reporters. In the past, the chairs of the two parties briefed reporters.

LDP officials feel Komeito has been grandstanding on the issue.

Late in 2024, the LDP and Komeito agreed to raise the minimum level to 1.23 million yen. But Akaba met with reporters and told them he had presented another proposal to further raise the limit even though the two parties were still negotiating the point.

One LDP executive said Komeito made the proposal because it wanted to appear in the limelight and get on the good side of the DPP.

Such differences are spreading to election cooperation.

The two parties have still not decided which partner will run the coalition candidate in 30 Lower House districts in Tokyo.

The two parties could also be at odds during this summer’s Upper House and Tokyo metropolitan assembly elections, depending on the district.

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