Komeito

Platform

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". 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. With regard to foreign policy, the Komeito wishes to eliminate nuclear arms and armed conflict in general. However, in July 2015, Komeito backed prime minister's Shinzo Abe push for expanded military powers although playing a moderating insider role in this development. While most NKP politicians and core supporters are Soka Gakkai members, the Komeito platform scarcely remarks on religious issues.

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." Also, the vast majority of party members are also members of Soka Gakkai and many Soka Gakkai members support NKP during election campaigns.

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.

Predecessors

Komeito's predecessor party, Kōmeitō, was formed in 1962, but it initially formed in 1954 as the Kōmei Political League. It lasted until 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.

Kōmeitō joined the Hosokawa and Hata anti-LDP coalition cabinets in 1993 and 1994. After the collapse of the anti-LDP governments 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 Reimei Club (黎明クラブ, "Dawn 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.

Current party

The current conservative, more moderate, party was formed in 1998, in a merger of Kōmei and the New Peace Party. It supported the ruling LDP (Liberal Democratic Party), 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 support the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In the 2003 and 2004 Diet elections, 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 gains 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 DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) if, in a snap election, the DPJ gained a majority in the House of Representatives. On 8 August 2005, then-Prime Minister of Japan Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the Lower House and called for a general election, due to the rejection of 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 suffered a major defeat in the Japanese general election, 2009 and became an opposition party. 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. On 16 December 2012, general elections swept the LDP/New Komeito coalition back into Government; former party chief Akihiro Ota (Ohta) is currently Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

In July 2015, Komeito backed prime minister Shinzo Abe's push to change the constitution 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.

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