February 10, 2026

In the general election held on February 8, the Japanese Communist Party suffered a serious setback, losing four of its eight seats in the House of Representatives.

In the proportional representation system in the general election, the JCP received nearly 2.52 million votes (4.40% of total vote cast), down 843,000 from 3.36 million in the previous election in 2024.

In the single-seat constituency system, the JCP failed to win the reelection of Akamine Seiken in the Okinawa No.1 district. He put up a good fight together with anti-base “All Okinawa” citizens and increased the number of votes by 3,400 from the previous election.

The JCP Standing Executive Committee in its statement issued on February 10 expressed wholehearted gratitude to voters who voted for the JCP, and to all JCP supporters, in particular members of the JCP supporters association, as well as JCP members who braved heavy snow and severe cold weather to campaign hard for the JCP. The statement offered an apology over its failure to bring these efforts to fruition.

The Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner “Nippon Ishin no Kai” party won more than a two-thirds majority in the Lower House. If combined with the number of seats which political parties shifting toward the right wing obtained, the pro-LDP politics force made up the vast majority. The largest opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, with its merger with the Komeito party, capitulated to the LDP politics, accelerating the rightward turn of Japan’s politics.

The JCP statement pointed out that the situation resulting from the general election is unprecedentedly dangerous as it will enable the Takaichi government to move toward turning Japan into a war-fighting nation by such means as adversely revising the pacifist Article 9 of the Constitution. The statement stressed that under this circumstance, as a political party squarely confronting Prime Minister Takaichi’s high-handed policies, the JCP’s role has become indispensable.

In the statement, the JCP expressed its determination to work hard to oppose Takaichi’s authoritarian handling of politics and work to develop a national movement in various fields to protect and promote human rights, people’s livelihoods, and democracy.