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July 03, 2026
 

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DPP

The Centrist Reform Alliance’s Yosuke Suzuki speaks to his supporters in Otsuka, Toshima Ward, Tokyo, on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 1, 2026
A tale of two Suzukis: Lower House election sets up fourth duel between Tokyo candidates
The Liberal Democratic Party’s Hayato Suzuki has been beating the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s Yosuke Suzuki since 2017, but new party backing could turn the tables.
An election notice board displaying posters of candidates in Tokyo on Tuesday. Official campaigning for the Feb. 8 election started Tuesday as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi seeks to solidify her majority in the Lower House of parliament.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 31, 2026
Social media abuzz with politics as Lower House election looms
Ahead of the Feb. 8 Lower House election, users are airing their thoughts on topics ranging from money scandals, immigration and security.
Japan is seeing growing demand for social security services as its population ages, but the burden on working generations is also rising due to the declining birth rate.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 30, 2026
Social security remains conundrum for parties ahead of Lower House election
Japan is seeing growing demand for social security services as its population ages, but the burden on working generations is growing due to the declining birth rate.
Yoshihiko Noda (left) and Tetsuo Saito, co-chairs of the new Centrist Reform Alliance, shake hands at the party's founding convention in Tokyo on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 27, 2026
Japan’s new ‘Centrist Reform Alliance’ is a misnomer
The Centrist Reform Alliance is asking voters to embrace a brand label rather than a fully formed policy platform and a partnership of convenience.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Japan Innovation Party co-leader Fumitake Fujita and Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya at the Panel Discussion by the Leaders of 7 Parties at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Monday
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 27, 2026
Can Takaichi win back conservative votes?
It’s increasingly uncertain whether conservative voters will return to the Liberal Democratic Party in the upcoming Lower House election.
Takayuki Kobayashi, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, speaks in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 24, 2026
Parties gear up for Lower House election after dissolution
Takayuki Kobayashi, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said that the election would be an opportunity for the public to weigh in on the new ruling coalition.
Yuichiro Tamaki (right), head of the Democratic Party for the People, during a news conference in the parliamentary building on Thursday
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 23, 2026
DPP vows to boost take-home pay in election pledges
While listing measures to alleviate the financial burdens on taxpayers, the opposition party also pledged not to raise taxes for the time being.
Officials of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito show the posters for the new Centrist Reform Alliance party at the parliament building on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 21, 2026
Centrist Reform Alliance to be launched with over 160 Lower House lawmakers
The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan said 144 of its 148 lawmakers in the Lower House will join the new party ahead of the Feb. 8 general election.
Yuichiro Tamaki, the leader of the Democratic Party for the People, speaks in the city of Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 13, 2026
Signs of friction emerge between DPP and LDP following snap election rumors
Although the prime minister has yet to confirm a snap election will take place, Democratic Party for the People leader Yuichiro Tamaki has gone on the offensive against her.
Liberal Democratic Party leader and the current prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, meets with Hirofumi Yoshimura, leader of the Japan Innovation Party, at the national Diet building in Tokyo in late October.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2026
Why Takaichi would call a snap election
Takaichi may dissolving the Lower House of the parliament upon its mandatory convocation later this month, which would prompt a general election sometime in February.
Yuichiro Tamaki, the leader of the Democratic Party for the People, said an early dissolution of the Lower House would violate an agreement between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the DPP to realize the enactment of the budget by the end of this fiscal year.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 12, 2026
DPP may not approve fiscal 2026 budget if there’s a snap election, Tamaki says
An early dissolution of the Lower House would violate an agreement between the Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Democratic Party for the People, Yuichiro Tamaki said.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks during a ceremony marking the end of trading of 2025 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Dec. 30.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 11, 2026
Momentum grows for snap election as Takaichi’s views enter ‘new stage’
The co-leader of the Japan Innovation Party, the LDP’s ruling coalition partner, has said the prime minister’s thinking on the matter had “shifted to a new stage.”
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks during an event in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 10, 2026
Takaichi reportedly eyeing snap election next month in bid to stabilize ruling bloc
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is considering dissolving the Lower House for a ‌Feb. 8 or Feb. 15 poll, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily has reported.
LDP secretary-general Shunichi Suzuki speaks at the party’s meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 7, 2026
LDP secretary-general eyes ‘political stability’ in courting DPP into ruling bloc
The move fits into the wider trend of growing cooperation between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party for the People in recent months.
Lawmakers in kimonos attend a session of the Lower House in Tokyo in January 2023. For nearly a half century, the chamber operated under a multiseat district system. But following revisions to the election law in 1994, the current model of single-seat districts and proportional representation seats was introduced. Now, there is a growing debate in parliament about returning the body's current electoral system to what it once was.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 2, 2026
Debate grows on reforming Lower House electoral system
Some argue the flaws in the current system could be fixed by returning to the old one. Others aren’t so sure.
Democratic Party for the People leader Yuichiro Tamaki speaks to members of the media in Tokyo in October. Tamaki has remained noncommittal on the idea of joining the LDP-JIP coalition.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 25, 2025
How will Takaichi balance ties with the DPP and JIP?
While the benefits of interparty cooperation are clear, some LDP voices say building trust with its coalition partner is of the utmost importance.
Itsunori Onodera (center right), the chief of the Liberal Democratic Party’s tax committee, and Japan Innovation Party counterpart Satoshi Umemura (center left) hold up the two party's tax reform proposal in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 19, 2025
Tax reform proposal lifts income tax threshold and reroutes funding to defense
The ruling coalition’s proposal includes using a levy once used to fund reconstruction work in the Tohoku region to now fund defense spending.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Japan Innovation Party leader Hirofumi Yoshimura hold a joint news conference in parliament in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 16, 2025
Decision on Lower House seat-reduction bill postponed to next year
The delay could impact the ruling coalition, as the JIP had made passing the bill this year a key plank of its October tie-up with the LDP.
LDP parliamentary affairs chief Hiroshi Kajiyama (left) and JIP counterpart Takashi Endo discuss the seat reduction bill in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 12, 2025
Lower House seat-reduction bill faces headwinds as Diet session nears end
The bill has been a key point of agreement for the ruling LDP and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during a party leaders' debate at the Upper House in Tokyo on Nov. 26.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 5, 2025
Takaichi earned most among Japanese party leaders in 2024
Takaichi had ¥255.37 million in revenue last year, a sharp increase from ¥100.1 million the previous year.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population. 
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
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