The Komeito party, which joined Japan's opposition earlier this year after leaving the ruling coalition, has decided to support its own candidates in nationwide local elections next spring, government sources said Saturday. In an online meeting with local organizations on Friday, it announced it would not join the Centrist Reform Alliance for the elections.
The Komeito party, backed by Japan's largest lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai, ended its 26-year alliance with the Liberal Democratic Party in October and joined the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan in January to form the Centrist Reform Alliance. However, the alliance, created just weeks before last month's snap lower house election by members from both parties, faced a crushing defeat. In the February 8 election, the LDP secured an overwhelming majority in the 465-member chamber.
Government sources indicate that the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan will also field its own candidates in the local elections, preserving a three-way division among the CDPJ, Komeito, and the CRA. Lawmakers from the CDPJ and Komeito in the House of Councillors have not merged under the CRA.
Komeito and the CDPJ are expected to endorse each other's candidates in uncontested single-seat districts and form a united front in the upcoming local elections. In the previous unified local elections in 2023, Komeito supported over 1,500 candidates, but 12 lost their races—the highest number of defeats on record for the party. The party concluded it lacked sufficient time before the quadrennial elections in 2027 to coordinate with the CRA. Meanwhile, the CRA plans to avoid fielding its own candidates and instead support those from the CDPJ and Komeito.