The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) and Komeito agreed on January 15, 2026, to form a new party ahead of the House of Representatives election. CDPJ leader Yoshihiko Noda and Komeito head Tetsuo Saito finalized the deal after separate intraparty meetings. The move seeks to unite centrist groups against Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's administration.
On January 15, 2026, CDPJ President Yoshihiko Noda and Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito met and agreed to create a new party for the upcoming House of Representatives election. The initiative aims to consolidate centrist forces to oppose Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government.
After the meeting, Noda stated, “We’ve agreed to fight together by forming a new party. This is an opportunity to put centrist forces in the middle of [Japan’s] politics.” Saito added, “In the upcoming lower house election, we intend to campaign by emphasizing how crucial it is for Japan to expand the bloc of centrist forces.” The party's name will be set soon, with further details to be worked out next week.
The original parties will not dissolve, allowing them to persist alongside the new entity. House of Councillors members will stay in their current parties, while House of Representatives members plan to switch over next week through formal procedures. Komeito will pull candidates from single-seat districts, including four currently held by Saito and other lawmakers. For the proportional representation segment, the parties will use a unified candidate list to pool votes effectively.
Discussions began on Monday when Noda and Saito committed to exploring deeper cooperation. That Thursday morning, Komeito's central secretariat entrusted Saito with decisions on the matter. Later that afternoon, CDPJ held a general meeting of Diet members at the Diet Building. Noda had secured a mandate from the party's standing executive committee on Tuesday.
In the 2024 lower house election's proportional representation race, CDPJ garnered about 11.56 million votes for 44 seats, while Komeito received around 5.96 million votes for 20 seats—outpacing the Liberal Democratic Party's 59 seats combined. This unified list strategy is designed to accumulate votes and maximize seats. Yet obstacles remain, including conflicts over list ordering and the ban on dual candidacies, which affected 43 of CDPJ's 148 elected members via proportional recovery.
Forming the new party addresses some issues but poses challenges in building voter recognition quickly. Within Komeito, members express caution over heightened tensions with the LDP. Some in CDPJ have floated including the Democratic Party for the People on the list, though its leaders have rejected the idea. Doshisha University Prof. Toru Yoshida noted, “For the CDPJ, it [the system] could be a means to draw in Komeito and the DPFP, but voters would find it difficult because they wouldn’t know which party’s candidate their vote ultimately supports.”
