Fresh off a surprise showing in Sunday's Lower House election, in which they won 41 seats to become the third-largest party in the Diet, Nippon Ishin no Kai is plotting its future.
But while the Osaka-based Nippon Ishin is now in a stronger position to play a more influential role in the Diet, its desire to brand itself as an independent non-establishment party makes its route to joining the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling coalition extremely difficult.
Instead, experts say it’s more likely that Nippon Ishin will remain official outsiders but mostly align with the ruling coalition’s policies — especially on national security and defense issues — while opposing measures they believe are not in their interests.