July 1, 2025

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on June 30 held a press conference in the Diet building, and announced that aimed at turning the ruling party into a minority party in the July 20 House of Councilors election, the JCP will withdraw its candidates in selected districts and work hard for a victory of unified opposition candidates in 17 single-seat constituencies.

In the 17 districts, Constitutional Democratic Pary of Japan candidates and independent candidates who champion the joint struggle of like-minded opposition parties with concerned citizens will stand as unified candidates.

Koike expressed his determination to defeat Liberal Democratic Party candidates in all 17 districts and reduce the LDP-Komei force to a minority position in the Upper House, and said, “In this regard, the best possible guarantee is a major advance of the JCP squarely confronting the government in power and working to realize people-oriented policies.”

Koike referred to an agreement made at a meeting of the JCP and CDPJ leaders on June 19 that the two parties will work together to relegate the LDP-Komei coalition into a minority position in the Upper House. He stressed that based on this agreement, the JCP in its latest Central Committee Plenum confirmed that it will “make all possible efforts for a new development of the joint struggle of opposition parties and concerned citizens.”

He said that in negotiations with the CDPJ on the selection of candidates in three single-member constituencies of Fukushima, Kagoshima, and Okayama, the JCP decided to withdraw its candidates and support CDPJ candidates in solidarity. He added that in the other 14 single-seat districts, the JCP decided not to field its candidates in accordance with the JCP-CDPJ agreement.

Past related article:
> JCP and CDPJ agree to work together in Upper House election [June 20, 2025]