The Lower House on Thursday rejected two motions put forward by the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) against Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Lower House speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda — votes that reveal growing cracks between the main opposition parties ahead of next month’s Upper House election.

While the outcome of the no-confidence votes was never in doubt, the results could push the CDP and the Democratic Party for the People even further apart, making it more difficult for the parties to support unified candidates in July's Upper House election. That could result in candidates from both parties running in single-district races, thereby splitting the vote, as well as a lack of enthusiasm on voting day among opposition party supporters who could otherwise rally around a single candidate.

The CDP said one reason for the no-confidence motion against Kishida’s government was its passage of a supplementary budget without including relief for consumers and businesses being impacted by rising commodity prices. The budget instead agreed only to the extension of an existing gasoline subsidy and an increase in the reserve fund.

"Is it not clear that the Kishida Cabinet deserves to be discredited in terms of its perception of our economy, its response to high prices, its supplementary budget and its attitude toward solving the critical issues facing our country?” CDP head Kenta Izumi said at Thursday's Lower House session.

Yoko Kamikawa, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the Lower House, said it was strange that the CDP, which had cooperated with the ruling coalition on a number of bills, chose this moment to submit a no-confidence resolution.

“I can’t help but question the judgment of the CDP and the Social Democratic Party,” she said, referring to the motion's co-sponsor.

In addition, the CDP criticized Kishida’s diplomatic and security policies, saying that the prime minister has been unable to have a direct dialogue with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, or with China, despite concerns about an invasion of Taiwan — which Beijing sees as a rogue province to be brought back into the fold, by force if necessary — amid the country's military expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.

But the motion against the prime minister was opposed by the LDP and its coalition partner Komeito, as well as the DPP, which voted for the Kishida-backed budget for the current fiscal year in March. The DPP — many supporters of which belong to autoworker trade unions — also supported the supplementary budget after the gasoline subsidy was included.

The Japanese Communist Party, which has long sought to cooperate with the CDP in elections by supporting a unified candidate, also backed the no-confidence motions. The DPP has refused to cooperate with the JCP at election time due to differences on economic and security policies.

The other major opposition party, Nippon Ishin no Kai, which often supports ruling-party initiatives and opposes CDP policies, voted against the no-confidence resolution against Kishda.

Before the vote on the Kishida Cabinet no-confidence motion, the Lower House voted on a separate motion put forward by the CDP against the Lower House speaker over allegations of sexual harassment by a tabloid magazine, as well as Hosoda's opposition, as speaker, to an announced redistricting plan. The CDP has said that he has failed to properly explain the allegations against him.

The JCP supported the motion against Hosoda. But the DPP and Nippon Ishin members abstained. The two ruling parties voted against it.