Thanks to blanket coverage of the Liberal Democratic Party presidential race last month, the coalition of opposition parties that formed in anticipation of the upcoming Lower House election has so far attracted scant media attention.
This disinterest may have had less to do with professional laziness than with the belief that the opposition has nothing to offer, since there’s little chance of their coming into power. The LDP presidential election, however, was important because the winner would be prime minister, even if only a tiny portion of the general electorate was voting.
One coalition member, the Japanese Communist Party, has received attention on its own, but it has been negative, which is normal. The party could probably solve half its image problems if it changed its name, since over the years it has shed whatever dogma and doctrines it once followed that were associated with international communism. It has even come to accept the emperor system.