Photo/Illutration Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito meets with Sanae Takaichi, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, on Oct. 10. (Takeshi Iwashita)

Komeito, frustrated with the Liberal Democratic Party’s opposition to reforms on funding, said it will withdraw from the ruling coalition, severing a quarter-century relationship and throwing the political world into further turmoil.

Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito informed LDP President Sanae Takaichi of the policy during a meeting on Oct. 10.

“For the time being, the LDP–Komeito coalition is a blank slate,” Saito told a news conference after the 90-minute meeting.

He said the LDP had failed to provide a satisfactory response regarding reforms concerning political donations from companies and organizations and other issues.

Saito declared that Komeito will not only dissolve the coalition with the LDP, but it will also terminate future election cooperation with the party.

For Lower House single-seat districts, Komeito will not endorse LDP candidates or seek endorsements from the LDP for its candidates, he said.

Komeito, supported by Soka Gakkai, the nation’s largest lay Buddhist organization, is known for its coordination skills in election campaigns.

Saito also made clear that Komeito will vote for him, not for Takaichi, in a Diet vote to designate the prime minister during the upcoming extraordinary session.

In the Lower House, the LDP holds 196 seats, 37 short of a majority, while Komeito has 24 seats. The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan has 148 seats.

If no candidate for prime minister gains a majority of votes, a runoff will be held between the two frontrunners. In the event of a disagreement between the two Diet chambers, the Lower House decision will prevail.

“For 26 years, Komeito has overcome numerous challenges by working with the LDP,” Saito said. “I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone in the LDP.”

He added: “Without public trust in politics, we cannot move politics forward or solve any issues. Komeito will continue to take the lead and do its utmost to restore public trust in politics.”

Takaichi said she was “one-sidedly” informed that Komeito was withdrawing from the coalition when she told Saito that she wanted to bring back Komeito’s political reform proposals for consideration within the LDP. 

“If I decide the details of (changes to) the Political Fund Control Law alone, or with the secretary-general, on the spot, that would be nothing but dictatorship,” she told reporters. “I would not do that.” 

In a meeting with Takaichi on Oct. 7, Saito proposed tightening regulations on political donations from companies and organizations by limiting entities allowed to receive such funds.

But the leaders failed to reach an agreement, putting the renewal of their coalition accord on hold.

Komeito is deeply concerned about the fallout of the LDP’s political funding scandal, which led to the coalition parties’ back-to-back defeats in the Lower House and Upper House elections.

On the night of Oct. 9, Komeito’s central executive committee decided to entrust Saito and Secretary-General Makoto Nishida with the decision on whether to continue the coalition with the LDP.

Within Komeito, calls were growing to leave the coalition unless the LDP made concessions.

Speaking on a Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) program on the night of Oct. 9, Takaichi said: “The LDP-Komeito coalition is the most basic of basics. I will work as hard as I can so we can quickly produce a policy agreement document.”

However, there remains deep-rooted resistance within the LDP to accepting Komeito’s call for stricter rules on corporate and organizational donations.

Komeito first formed a coalition government with the LDP and the Liberal Party in 1999. Including the period spent in the opposition under the Democratic Party of Japan administration, Komeito has maintained its relationship with the LDP for a quarter of a century.

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