Komeito

For the earlier incarnation of this political party, see Kōmeitō (1962–1998).

Komeito 公明党
Leader	Tetsuo Saito
Deputy Leaders	Toshiko Takeya Kazuyoshi Akaba Shigeki Sato
Secretary-General	Makoto Nishida
Councilors Leader	Masaaki Taniai
Founded	7 November 1998 (1998-11-07)
Merger of	Kōmeitō (1962) New Peace Party Reform Club
Headquarters	17 Minamimoto-machi, Shinjuku, Tokyo 160-0012
Newspaper	Komei Shimbun
Membership (2024)	450,000
Ideology	Buddhist democracy Social conservatism Welfarism
Political position	Centre
Religion	Buddhism (Soka Gakkai) (de facto)
Colors	Pink   Blue
Slogan	大衆と共に ('With the Public')
Councillors	27 / 248
Representatives	24 / 465
Prefectural assembly members	206 / 2,644
Municipal assembly members	2,667 / 29,135
Website
Japanese www.komei.or.jp English www.komei.or.jp/en/
Politics of Japan Political parties Elections ^ A: Komeito embraces market liberalism to some extent, but it also emphasizes social welfare, and officially puts forward "Humanitarian socialism" as its main ideology. ^ B: Komeito is also sometimes described as centre-left or right-wing.

Komeito (公明党, Kōmeitō), formerly New Komeito (NKP) and commonly referred to as simply Komei, is a political party in Japan founded by members of the Buddhist movement Soka Gakkai in 1964. It is generally considered centrist and conservative. Since 2012, it has served in government as the junior coalition partner of the nationalist and conservative governments led by the Liberal Democratic Party.

Keiichi Ishii has been the president of the party since 28 September 2024. Komeito currently has 24 elected Deputies in the Japanese House of Representatives.

History

See also: Kōmeitō (1962–1998)

Opposition before 1993

Komeito began as the Political Federation for Clean Government in 1961, but held its inaugural convention as Komeito on 17 November 1964. The three characters 公明党 have the approximate meanings of "public/government" (公 kō), "light/brightness" (明 mei), and "political party" (党 tō). The combination "kōmei" (公明) is usually taken to mean "justice". Komeito's predecessor party, Kōmeitō, was formed in 1962, but it had begun in 1954 as the Kōmei Political League. It lasted until it merged with the NKP in 1998.

In 1957, a group of Young Men's Division members campaigning for a Soka Gakkai candidate in an Osaka Upper House by-election were arrested for distributing money, cigarettes, and caramels at supporters' residences, in violation of election law, and on July 3 of that year, at the beginning of an event memorialized as the "Osaka Incident," Daisaku Ikeda was arrested in Osaka. He was taken into custody in his capacity as Soka Gakkai's Youth Division Chief of Staff for overseeing activities that constituted violations of election law. He spent two weeks in jail and appeared in court forty-eight times before he was cleared of all charges in January 1962.

In 1968, fourteen of its members were convicted of forging absentee ballots in Shinjuku, and eight were sentenced to prison for electoral fraud. In the 1960s it was widely criticized for violating the separation of church and state, and in February 1970 all three major Japanese newspapers printed editorials demanding that the party reorganize. It eventually broke apart based on promises to segregate from Soka Gakkai.

In the 1980s, Shimbun Akahata discovered that many Soka Gakkai members were rewarding acquaintances with presents in return for Komeito votes and that Okinawa residents had changed their addresses to elect Komeito politicians.

Anti-LDP coalition government: 1993–1994

Kōmeitō joined the Hosokawa and Hata anti-LDP coalition cabinets in 1993 and 1994. After the collapse of the anti-LDP and anti-JCP governments (非自民・非共産連立政権) and the electoral and campaign finance reforms of 1994, the Kōmeitō split in December 1994: The "New Kōmei Party" (公明新党, Kōmei Shintō) joined the New Frontier Party (NFP) a few days later in an attempt to unify the splintered opposition. The other group, Kōmei (公明), continued to exist as a separate party. After the dissolution of the NFP in December 1997, former Kōmeitō members from the NFP founded two new groups: the "New Peace Party" (新党平和, Shintō Heiwa) and the "Dawn Club" (黎明クラブ, Reimei Club) in the House of Councillors, but some ex-Kōmeitō politicians such as Shōzō Azuma followed Ichirō Ozawa into the Liberal Party. The Reimei Club merged into the New Peace Party a few weeks later in January 1998. Finally, in November 1998, Kōmei and New Peace Party merged to re-establish Kōmeitō (referred to in English now as "New Komeito" – the party's name is just Kōmeitō as before the 1994 split).

The Japan Echo alleged in 1999 that Soka Gakkai distributed fliers to local branches describing how to abuse the jūminhyō residence registration system in order to generate a large number of votes for Komeito candidates in specific districts.

Coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party: 1999–2009, 2012–present

Komeito activists canvassing in front of Himeji Castle

The current conservative, more moderate, and centrist party was formed in 1998, in a merger of Kōmei and the New Peace Party. Since then it has joined coalition with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which needs Komeito to maintain a majority in the Diet (especially in the House of Councillors which the LDP lost majority since 1989), and did well in the 2000 and 2001 parliamentary elections.

The LDP-Liberal coalition expanded to include the New Komeito Party in October 1999. New Komeito has been (and continues to be) a coalition partner in the Government of Japan since 1999 (excluding 2009–2011 when the Democratic Party of Japan was in power). As such, New Komeito supported a (temporary) change to Japan's "no-war constitution" in order for Japan to deploy troops in support of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In the 2003 Japanese general election and 2004 Japanese House of Councillors election, the NKP did well, thanks to an extremely committed and well-organized voter base coming from Soka Gakkai. The party shares its support base with the LDP, made up of white-collar bureaucrats and rural populations, but also gained support from religious leaders. However, on 27 July 2005, NKP's Secretary-General said that his party would consider forming a coalition government with the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) if the DPJ gained a majority in the House of Representatives. On 8 August 2005, then-Prime Minister and the president of LDP Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the Lower House and called for a general election, due to the rejection on some of the members of LDP for efforts to privatize Japan Post. The incumbent LDP-New Komeito coalition won a large majority in the 2005 general election.

Natsuo Yamaguchi became the party's leader on 8 September 2009 after the party and their coalition partner LDP suffered a major defeat in the 2009 general election, become part of the opposition for the first time since 1999. New Komeito lost ten seats, including that of party leader Akihiro Ota and general secretary Kazuo Kitagawa. On 8 September 2009, Yamaguchi replaced Ota as president of New Komeito.

In the general election on 16 December 2012, the LDP/Komeito coalition secured a supermajority and came back into government. The former party chief Akihiro Ota (Ohta) is currently Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The party also gained seats in the general election in 2014. In September 2014 the party changed its English name from New Komeito back to Komeito.

In July 2015, Komeito backed Prime Minister Shinzō Abe's push to revise the Constitution in order to "give Japan's military limited powers to fight in foreign conflicts for the first time since World War II". This legislation, supported by the United States, would allow the "Self-Defense Forces to cooperate more closely with the U.S. by providing logistical support and, in certain circumstances, armed backup in international conflicts" and "complements guidelines in a bilateral agreement governing how Japanese and United States forces work together, which was signed by the two nations" earlier in 2015.

On March 11, 2019, a project team of Komeito submitted proposals to Foreign Minister Taro Kono for an international agreement to regulate robotic weapons, calling on Japan to build global consensus for a "political declaration or a code of conduct, within the framework of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons".

Ideology and policies

A self-proclaimed party of "humanitarian socialism," Komeito's declared mission is to pioneer "people-centered politics, a politics based on a humanitarianism, that treats human life with the utmost respect and care". On 24 April 2019, joint task force efforts with its coalition partner resulted in the passing of a bill mandating reparations and having the coalition government issue a formal apology to sterilization victims of the defunct Eugenic Protection Act, thus to advance human rights awareness in the wake of lawsuits related to the history of eugenics in Japan.

Religious scholar and political analyst Masaru Satō explains that in postwar Japan there were two major parties, the Liberal Democratic Party representing financial interests and large corporations and the Japan Socialist Party largely advocating the interests of trade unions and the working class. There was no single party that represented people who belonged to neither, such as shop owners and housewives, among others. Komeito was thus able to capture the support of this constituency.

Relationship with Soka Gakkai

Komeito regards the Soka Gakkai as a "major electoral constituency", having formally separated from the religious group and revised both its platform and regulations in 1970 to reflect a "secular orientation". Observers continue to describe Komeito as the Soka Gakkai's "political arm", however, and critics contend the relationship violates the separation of religion and politics enshrined in Article 20 of the Japanese Constitution. The leadership and financing of the two groups are currently said to be independent. Both groups report having occasional liaison meetings, characterizing them as informational and "open to the media". Numerous Japanese religious groups have established political parties in Japan, but statistics scholar Petter Lindgren states that "None have, however, been more successful than Soka Gakkai."

Domestic policy

Domestically, the party proposals include reduction of the central government and bureaucracy, increased transparency in public affairs, and increased local (prefectural) autonomy with the private sector playing an increased role. Komeito also supports reducing the consumption tax rate, reducing school fees and offering child allowances.

In accordance with its public affairs transparency platform, it was reported that since September 2016, the Komeito conducted independent analyses for possible environmental contamination of the proposed Toyosu market site. The Komeito officially raised its environmental concerns later regarding Toyosu market during the 5 October 2016 Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Session. In response, the newly appointed Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike, cited possible disciplinary action towards those responsible for the Toyosu project.

Security policy

In contrast with the LDP, Komeito has generally been more cautious about efforts to expand the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). At its founding, the party adhered to absolute pacifism, rejecting both the constitutionality of the JSDF and the military alliance with the US. Later softening its views, Komeito later backed LDP proposals such as a 2004 vote to dispatch the JSDF to support allied operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and prime minister's Shinzo Abe's revision of the security laws to expand military powers in July 2015, although it did manage to moderate the policy on the latter.

Foreign policy

With regard to foreign policy, the Komeito wishes to eliminate nuclear arms and Japanese involvement in armed conflict in general. Komeito supports maintaining the Japan's military alliance with the United States.

The party promotes closer relations between China and Japan. According to a Foreign Policy article in 2021, "Of all parties in the Diet, Komeito enjoys the strongest and most stable relationship with China." Komeito's then leader Yoshikatsu Takeiri's held negotiations Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in the 1970s played a critical role in the eventual normalization of relations between the People's Republic of China and Japan in 1972. The party has advocated for friendlier policies towards China, and has maintained communications with the country even during moments when the relationships between the two countries have been strained.

The party reportedly advocates for improved ties with China and South Korea in light of Japan's historical war crimes in both territories. In 2013, the party's chief representative Natsuo Yamaguchi praised Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision not to visit Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese war criminals are enshrined. On the comfort women issue, in 2016 the party reportedly advocated for removing Yoshitaka Sakurada from a leadership position after Sakurada denied that the women were forced to work.

Party organ

The party organ of Komeito is the Komei Shinbun. It is published by the Komei Organ Paper Committee, and has also published a regional Hokkaido edition in the past.

Leadership

Current leadership

Leadership as of 9 November 2024:

Position	Name
Permanent Advisors	Natsuo Yamaguchi
	Keiichi Ishii
Leader	Tetsuo Saito
Deputy Leaders	Toshiko Takeya
	Kazuyoshi Akaba
	Shigeki Sato
Secretary General	Makoto Nishida
Chairman of the Central Executive Committee	Kazuyoshi Akaba
Chairman of the Policy Research Council	Mitsunari Okamoto
Chairman of the Caucus in the House of Councillors	Masaaki Taniai
Election Strategy Committee Chairman	Nobuhiro Miura
Diet Affairs Committee Chairman	Hidemichi Satō

List of presidents

No.	Name (Birth–death)	Constituency / title	Term of office		Image	Prime Minister (term)		Government/ opposition
			Took office	Left office
New Komei Party (1994–1998)
1	Kōshirō Ishida (1930–2006)	Rep for Aichi 6th	5 December 1994	9 December 1994			Murayama 1994–96	Opposition
Komei (1994–1998)
1	Tomio Fujii (1924–2021)	Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly for Shinjuku district	5 December 1994	18 January 1998			Murayama 1994–96	Opposition
							Hashimoto 1996–98
2	Toshiko Hamayotsu (1945–2020)	Cou for Tokyo at-large	18 January 1998	7 November 1998
							Obuchi 1998–2000
New Peace Party (1998)
1	Takenori Kanzaki (b. 1943)	Rep for Fukuoka 1st	4 January 1998	7 November 1998			Hashimoto 1996–98	Opposition
							Obuchi 1998–2000
Reimei Club (1998)
1	Kazuyoshi Shirahama (b. 1947)	Cou for Osaka at-large	4 January 1998	18 January 1998			Hashimoto 1996–98	Opposition
New Komeito (1998–2014)
1	Takenori Kanzaki (b. 1943)	Rep for Fukuoka 1st (1983–2005) Kyushu PR block (2005–2010)	7 November 1998	30 September 2006			Obuchi 1998–2000	Opposition until 5 October 1999 (Obuchi First reshuffled cabinet)
								Governing coalition since 5 October 1999 (Obuchi Second reshuffled cabinet)
							Mori 2000–01
							Koizumi 2001–06
							Abe S. 2006–07
2	Akihiro Ota (b. 1945)	Rep for Tokyo 12th	30 September 2006	8 September 2009
							Fukuda Y. 2007–08
							Asō 2008–09
3	Natsuo Yamaguchi (b. 1952)	Cou for Tokyo at-large	8 September 2009	25 September 2014			Hatoyama Y. 2009–10	Opposition
							Kan 2010–11
							Noda 2011–12
							Abe S. 2012–20	Governing coalition
Komeito (2014–present)
1	Natsuo Yamaguchi (b. 1952)	Cou for Tokyo at-large	25 September 2014	28 September 2024			Abe S. 2012–20	Governing coalition
							Suga 2020–2021
							Kishida 2021–2024
2	Keiichi Ishii (b. 1958)	Rep for Northern Kanto PR block	28 September 2024	9 November 2024			Ishiba 2024–present
3	Tetsuo Saito (b. 1952)	Rep for Hiroshima 3rd	9 November 2024	Incumbent

Election results

House of Representatives

House of Representatives

Election	Leader	No. of candidates	Seats			Position	Constituency votes		PR Block votes		Status
			No.	±	Share		No.	Share	No.	Share
Komei era
1996	Komei faction	51	42 / 511	9	8.2%		see New Frontier Party				Opposition (until 1998)
											Governing coalition (since 1998)
New Komeito era
2000	Takenori Kanzaki	74	31 / 480	11	6.4%	3rd	1,231,753	2.02%	7,762,032	12.97%	Governing coalition
2003		55	34 / 480	3	7.0%	3rd	886,507	1.49%	8,733,444	14.78%	Governing coalition
2005		52	31 / 480	3	6.4%	3rd	981,105	1.4%	8,987,620	13.3%	Governing coalition
2009	Akihiro Ota	51	21 / 480	10	4.3%	3rd	782,984	1.11%	8,054,007	11.45%	Opposition
2012	Natsuo Yamaguchi	54	31 / 480	10	6.4%	4th	885,881	1.49%	7,116,474	11.90%	Governing coalition
Komeito era
2014	Natsuo Yamaguchi	51	35 / 475	4	7.3%	4th	765,390	1.45%	7,314,236	13.71%	Governing coalition
2017		53	29 / 465	6	6.2%	4th	832,453	1.50%	6,977,712	12.51%	Governing coalition
2021		53	32 / 465	3	6.8%	4th	872,931	1.52%	7,114,282	12.38%	Governing coalition
2024	Keiichi Ishii	50	24 / 465	8	5.2%	6th	730,401	1.35%	5,964,415	10.93%

House of Councillors

House of Councillors

Election	Leader	Seats		Nationwide (PR votes since 1983)		Prefecture		Status
		Total	Contested	Number	%	Number	%
Komei era
1995	Tomio Fujii	11 / 252	0 / 126	Did not participate in election				Minority
1998	Toshiko Hamayotsu	22 / 252	9 / 126	7,748,301	13.80%	1,843,479	3.30%	Minority (until 1999)
								Governing majority (since 1999)
New Komeito era
2001	Takenori Kanzaki	23 / 247	13 / 121	8,187,804	14.96%	3,468,664	6.38%	Governing majority
2004		24 / 242	11 / 121	8,621,265	15.41%	2,161,764	3.85%	Governing majority
2007	Akihiro Ota	20 / 242	9 / 121	7,765,329	13.18%	3,534,672	5.96%	Governing minority (until 2009)
								Minority (since 2009)
2010	Natsuo Yamaguchi	19 / 242	9 / 121	7,639,432	13.07%	2,265,818	3.88%	Minority (until 2012)
								Governing minority(since 2012)
2013		20 / 242	11 / 121	7,568,082	14.22%	2,724,447	5.13%	Governing majority
Komeito era
2016	Natsuo Yamaguchi	25 / 242	14 / 121	7,572,960	13.52%	4,263,422	7.54%	Governing majority
2019		28 / 245	14 / 124	6,536,336	13.05%	3,913,359	7.77%	Governing majority
2022		27 / 248	13 / 125	6,181,432	11.66%	3,600,490	6.77%	Governing majority

See also

• Politics of Japan

Literature

• Ehrhardt, George, Axel Klein, Levi McLaughlin and Steven R. Reed (2014) (Eds.): Kōmeitō – Politics and Religion in Japan. Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley
• Fisker-Nielsen, Anne Mette (2012), Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan: Soka Gakkai Youth and Komeito, Routledge

External links

• Komeito official website
• Komeito official English website