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September 02, 2025
 

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KOMEITO

Voters look at posters of candidates for an Upper House election outside a polling station in Tokyo on July 20. The young abandoned the ruling Liberal Democratic Party for other conservative and newer parties in the recent poll. REUTERS
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 31, 2025
What is a ‘Japanese conservative’ in this day and age?
My view is that younger voters saw the LDP as a group of elderly, self-absorbed elitists who were out of touch with the issues that mattered to them.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito, will screen government agencies and ministries' requests for tax reform at their respective tax panels, aiming to draw up guidelines later this year.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 30, 2025
Government agencies draw up fiscal year 2026 tax reform requests
The ruling coalition will screen the requests, aiming to draw up late this year tax reform guidelines for the fiscal year starting next April.
Nippon Ishin no Kai leader Hirofumi Yoshimura (center), Secretary-General Hiroshi Nakatsuka (center right) and other executives meet in Osaka on Aug. 12.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 28, 2025
Amid LDP turmoil, speculation grows over possible tie-up with Nippon Ishin
Recent moves that put LDP-friendly executives into leadership positions seem to signal that Nippon Ishin wants to draw closer to the LDP.
Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15. Political commentator Toru Hashimoto has suggested that Takaichi ought to lead a group of like-minded hawkish politicians out of the Liberal Democratic Party and form their own party.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 22, 2025
Is the LDP’s catch-all approach to politics still effective?
With smaller, more ideologically unified parties gaining voter support, some critics say the LDP should split into different groups.
Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito speaks to reporters in Tokyo after Upper House election voting finished on July 20.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 11, 2025
Komeito struggling after crushing Upper House election defeat
Some have been calling on Komeito to withdraw from costly races in constituencies and put resources into proportional representation.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba answers questions from Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda during a Lower House Budget Committee session on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 6, 2025
Ruling parties to discuss corporate donation issue with CDP and DPP
Now that the ruling parties are short of a majority in both chambers, the coalition is set to meet halfway with the opposition in an effort to kick-start the stalled debate.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba addresses the media at the vote-counting center in the Liberal Democratic Party’s headquarters in Tokyo on July 20.  
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 1, 2025
Is this the end of Japan's 'big tent' parties?
The big winners of the day in the Upper House election were newer conservative parties.
Parliamentary affairs chiefs of the ruling and opposition parties on Wednesday at the parliament building after signing an agreement to abolish the provisional add-on gasoline tax
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2025
Ruling and opposition parties agree to scrap provisional gas tax by year-end
The parties aim to enact a bill to scrap the tax at an extraordinary session of parliament expected to be convened in autumn.
The Liberal Democratic Party’s historic Upper House defeat leaves the party fragmented and searching for a capable leader who can reunite conservatives, modernize its appeal, deliver real policies and rebuild its internal power structure.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2025
Who will save the Liberal Democratic Party?
The LDP is now faced with two fundamental questions: what tasks must it accomplish to restore its political dominance and who is actually capable of accomplishing them?
Japan’s ruling LDP-Komeito bloc lost big, smaller parties gained ground and the country now faces a more fractured, uncertain political future.
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2025
Voter revolt shatters Japan’s ruling coalition and empowers smaller parties
The big winners were smaller, newer parties on the right, Sanseito and the Democratic Party for the People.
Japan’s ruling coalition is weakening as rising populist parties like Sanseito gain support, raising concerns that Japan could shift toward unstable multiparty coalition politics similar to Israel’s fragmented Knesset.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2025
Is Japan drifting toward fragmented and ineffective politics?
In a system with many small parties, even minor players can hold the balance of power in forming coalitions.
Komeito head Tetsuo Saito speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 22, 2025
Upper House election confirms inexorable decline of voting blocs
Unaffiliated voters were the kingmakers in Sunday’s election.
Upper House votes being counted on Sunday. The Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition lost its majority in the upper chamber of parliament, but could still be effective in thwarting the opposition.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 21, 2025
Consumption tax cut not a given even after Upper House election
Political and economic realities suggest that opposition policies will not skate through.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, delivers a campaign speech in Yokohama on July 6.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 19, 2025
Japan's minority government faces election snub as economic storm brews
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's LDP and its partner Komeito are forecast to lose their majority in a repeat of last year's Lower House election.
A Sanseito campaign van in Shinjuku. The populist party is gaining ground and challenging the more centrist parties.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 18, 2025
Japanese markets brace for triple whammy if opposition wins big
Bonds, stocks and the yen could be destabilized if spendthrift parties gain influence.
Once seen as an unlikely prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba has struggled to deliver on promises, mishandled ties with U.S. President Donald Trump and now faces an election where the odds don’t look good for his party to come out victorious.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 18, 2025
A trade deal fumble could be Ishiba’s last mistake
Ishiba already leads a coalition that lacks a majority in the Lower House, and another bad showing Sunday will likely mean Japan is looking for its third leader in as many years.
The Tokyo district has the highest number of candidates in the 2025 Upper House election with 32 people in the running for seven seats.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 18, 2025
In Upper House race, younger voters in Tokyo turn to DPP for new direction
Many younger voters, especially in the capital, are drawn to the party's idea that the working generation must be supported for the sake of everyone.
Campaign posters in Tokyo. Voters in Japan put immediate economic issues ahead of longer-term concerns about the effects of tariffs.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 17, 2025
Trump tariffs fail to register with Japanese voters ahead of key election
Only 8% of voters surveyed by NHK rated tariffs as their top priority.
Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito takes part in a debate with the heads of other political parties at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on July 2.
COMMENTARY / Japan / From Party Leaders
Jul 17, 2025
Komeito hears those hit hardest by rising prices
“To stand forever with common citizens.” Our party has faithfully abided by that founding principle for over six decades
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, delivers a campaign speech in Yokohama on July 6.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 16, 2025
Ishiba faces bad poll numbers with Upper House vote only days away
Losing a majority in the Upper House would pile pressure on Ishiba to resign and kickstart efforts by the ruling coalition to find an opposition party to join it.
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
Woman dies after possible knife attack in Setagaya
Police investigate the scene where a woman was found bleeding on a street in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on Monday.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
More sweltering days forecast for September after hottest summer on record
By the end of August, 8,341 people had been transported by ambulance for heatstroke in Tokyo alone.
How Tokyo's Ueno Zoo helps their animals cope with extreme heat
A polar bear at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo on Thursday. The Arctic animals are among the most vulnerable species to Japan's scorching summer heat and zookeepers have to take a number of precautions in order to keep them safe.
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
How Tokyo's Ueno Zoo helps their animals cope with extreme heat
A polar bear at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo on Thursday. The Arctic animals are among the most vulnerable species to Japan's scorching summer heat and zookeepers have to take a number of precautions in order to keep them safe.
Japan is warming up to tattoos — just not permanent ones
Tattoos have a complex history in Japan, but new types of temporary ink are letting locals curious about body art experiment without the commitment.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Japan looks to build drone ‘shield’ in record defense budget request
A group of Ground Self-Defense Force service members discuss drone operations and capabilities at a joint static display during the Orient Shield 24 opening ceremony at the Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido in July last year.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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