Japanese Communist Party Eyes Withdrawing Some Candidates from Upper House Race

TOKYO, JAPAN - FEB. 22: The Japanese Communist Party said Monday it plans to withdraw some of its candidates from this summer's House of Councillors election as part of efforts with other opposition parties to field unified candidates in single-member electoral districts in a challenge to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government. JCP leader Kazuo Shii said the party would withdraw "a considerable number of its candidates" from the race for single-member electoral districts on condition that unified candidates call for a scrapping of the new security laws that the JCP and other opponents claim to be unconstitutional. The laws enacted in September 2015 mark a change from Japan's exclusively defense-orientated post-World War II security policy, greatly expanding the role the Self-Defense Forces can play when they are sent abroad. The JCP has fielded candidates in 29 of the 32 districts up for grabs. "If opposition parties were to form a united front (against Abe's government), a considerable number of those (running for single-member electoral districts with JCP tickets) would end up dropping their candidacy," Shii said at a news conference after a JCP national meeting in Tokyo. The JCP would instead support candidates from the Democratic Party of Japan or other opposition parties, Shii said. "It's not easy (for the JCP) to win in single-member electoral districts," he said. "We want to aim for full-fledged election cooperation (with other opposition parties). Only by doing so, we can beat the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito," the LDP's coalition partner. The JCP will convey the plan in a meeting Tuesday of secretaries general of five opposition parties including it and the DPJ, hoping to start specific talks toward building a unified force against the Abe government, according to JCP lawmakers. The five opposition parties will also consider cooperating in the next lower house election, according to opposition lawmakers.