Kōmeitō (1962–1998)

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The Kōmeitō (Template:Langx), also known as the Kōmei Party and Clean Government Party (CGP), was a political party in Japan, initiated by Daisaku Ikeda, and described by various authors as the "political arm" of Soka Gakkai.Template:Refn

Kōmeitō was considered a centre[1]-to-centre-left political party of the progressive camp until the 1990s.[2] Its successor party Komeito has become politically closer to the right-wing LDP and has become a centre-to-centre-right conservative party.

History

The party was established in January 1962 as the Kōmei Seiji Renmei (Clean Government League) by the Sōka Gakkai, an organization that promoted Nichiren Buddhism. Running as independents, three members of the Sōka Gakkai had been elected to the House of Councillors in the 1956 elections, with the 1959 elections seeing nine members elected. It also had several members elected to local assemblies.

In 1957, a group of Young Men's Division members campaigning for a Gakkai candidate in an Osaka House of Councillors by-election were arrested for distributing money, cigarettes, and caramels at supporters' residences, in violation of elections 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 Sōka Gakkai's Youth Division Chief of Staff for overseeing activities that constituted violations of elections law. He spent two weeks in jail and appeared in court forty-eight times before he was cleared of all charges in January 1962.[3]

Amongst its policies, the new party supported the 1947 constitution and opposed nuclear weapons. Headed by Harashima Kōji. In the July 1962 elections the new party won nine seats in the House of Councillors.[4]

On 17 November 1964 the party was renamed Kōmeitō.[4] 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.[5][6][7]

In 1969, the Kōmeitō became the third political party in Japan.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

In the 1980s 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.[8] It was also revealed that while the party was technically separate from the Soka Gakkai, monetary donations made that were tax exempt were being funneled into funding for the Kōmeitō party as revealed by an expelled Kōmeitō member of the Tokyo municipal assembly.[9]

It was usually supportive of the Japan Socialist Party, and opposed the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party), the major ruling party at that time.

Ideologically, Kōmeitō proposed a mild form of what it called “humanitarian socialism,” which its one-time secretary general Hiroshi Hojo defined as “a Buddhist version of Christian Democratic socialism.”[10]

Kōmeitō did quite well, and in 1993, when the LDP was for the first time declared an opposition party, the Kōmeitō became one of the ruling parties, headed by the liberal Japan New Party, but which also included the Democratic Socialist Party, Japan Renewal Party, the New Party Sakigake, and the Japan Socialist Party. In 1994, the latter two parties left the coalition, and in July they took over the rule, making another coalition with the LDP. The Kōmeitō was again thrown into opposition.

On December 5, 1994, The Kōmeitō split into two parties. The Lower House chairs and some of Upper House chairs formed Kōmeitō New Party, and five days later, they joined into the New Frontier Party. The others, i.e. local assembly members and the rest of the Upper House chairs, formed Kōmei and independent friend of the New Frontier Party.

In 1998, however, the New Frontier Party dissolved, and former Kōmeitō members formed New Peace Party and Reform Club. They merged with Kōmei in the same year and then became known as the NKP (New Kōmeitō Party). The NKP adopted a more conservative agenda than the former Kōmeitō and in 1999 they supported the ruling party, the LDP.[11]

Leaders

No. Name (Birth–death) Constituency / title Term of office Prime Minister (term) Status
Took office Left office
1 Kōji Harashima

(1909–1964)

Cllr for
national district		 17 November 1964 9 December 1964 style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" | Satō (1964–72) Opposition
2 Takehisa Tsuji

(1918–2012)

Cllr for
national district		 9 December 1964 13 February 1967 style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-bottom:solid 0 gray; border-top:solid 0 gray" |
3 Yoshikatsu Takeiri

(1926–2023)

Rep for Tokyo 10th 13 February 1967 5 December 1986 style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray" |
style="background-color: Template:Party color" | Tanaka K. (1972–74)
style="background-color: Template:Party color" | Miki (1974–76)
style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" | Fukuda T. (1976–78)
style="background-color: Template:Party color" | Ōhira (1978–80)
style="background-color: Template:Party color" | Ito M. (1980) (acting)
style="background-color: Template:Party color" | Suzuki Z. (1980–82)
style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" | Nakasone (1982–87)
4 Junya Yano

(b. 1932)

Rep for Ōsaka 4th 5 December 1986 21 May 1989 style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray" |
style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" | Takeshita (1987–89)
5 Kōshirō Ishida

(1930–2006)

Rep for Aichi 6th 21 May 1989 5 December 1994 style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray" |
style="background-color: Template:Party color" | Uno (1989)
style="background-color: Template:Party color" | Kaifu (1989–91)
style="background-color: Template:Party color" | Miyazawa (1991–93)
style="background-color: Template:Party color; border-top:solid 0 gray; border-bottom:solid 0 gray" | Hosokawa (1993–94) Governing coalition
style="background-color: Template:Party color" | Hata (1994)
style="background-color: Template:Party color" | Murayama (1994–96) Opposition

Election results

House of Representatives

House of Representatives
Election Leader No. of
candidates 		Seats Position Constituency votes PR Block votes Status
No. ± Share No. Share No. Share
1967 Takehisa Tsuji 32 Template:Composition bar 5.1% 4th 2,472,371 5.4% Opposition
1969 Yoshikatsu Takeiri 76 Template:Composition bar Increase 22 9.6% Increase 3rd 5,124,666 10.9% Opposition
1972 59 Template:Composition bar Decrease 18 5.9% Decrease 4th 4,436,755 8.5% Opposition
1976 84 Template:Composition bar Increase 26 10.7% Increase 3rd 6,177,300 10.9% Opposition
1979 64 Template:Composition bar Increase 2 11.1% Steady 3rd 5,282,682 9.78% Opposition
1980 64 Template:Composition bar Decrease 24 6.4% Steady 3rd 5,329,942 9.03% Opposition
1983 59 Template:Composition bar Increase 25 11.3% Steady 3rd 5,745,751 10.12% Opposition
1986 61 Template:Composition bar Decrease 2 10.9% Steady 3rd 5,701,277 9.43% Opposition
1990 Kōshirō Ishida 58 Template:Composition bar Decrease 11 8.7% Steady 3rd 5,242,675 7.98% Opposition
1993 54 Template:Composition bar Increase 6 9.9% Decrease 4th 5,114,351 8.14% Governing coalition (until 1994)

House of Councillors

House of Councillors
Election Leader Seats NationwideTemplate:Efn Prefecture Status
TotalTemplate:Efn Contested Number % Number %
1965 Yoshikatsu Takeiri Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar 5,097,682 13.7% 1,910,975 5.1% Minority
1968 Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar 6,656, 771 15.5% 2,632,528 6.1% Minority
1971 Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar 5,626,293 14.1% 1,391,855 3.5% Minority
1974 Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar 6,360,419 12.1% 6,732,937 12.6% Minority
1977 Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar 7,174,459 14.2% 3,206,719 6.1% Minority
1980 Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar 6,669,387 11.9% 2,817,379 4.9% Minority
1983 Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar 7,314,465 15.7% 3,615,995 7.8% Minority
1986 Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar 7,438,501 12.97% 2,549,037 4.40% Minority
1989 Kōshirō Ishida Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar 6,097,971 10.86% 2,900,947 5.10% Minority
1992 Template:Composition bar Template:Composition bar 6,415,503 14.27% 3,550,060 7.82% Minority (until 1993)
Governing minority (1993–1994)
Minority (1994)

See also

Notes

Template:Notelist

References

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  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ a b Haruhiro Fukui (1985) Political parties of Asia and the Pacific, Greenwood Press, pp459–460
  5. ↑ Ikuo Kabashima, Gill Steel Changing Politics in Japan 2012 Page 38 "Fragmented Opposition: Other Parties Other smaller parties include Komeito (the party officially became known as New Komeito in 1998), a party that Soka Gakkai formed in 1964 from its precursor, the Komei Political League."
  6. ↑ John McCormick Comparative Politics in Transition 2011- Page 179 "Clean Government Party (CGP) (Komeito) New Komeito is the political wing of Soka Gakkai, Japan's largest lay Buddhist ..."
  7. ↑ Jeffrey Haynes Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics Page 17 "Talking to young Japanese people one normally gets very little sense of enthusiasm about Buddhism, and few people seem to take seriously the notion that the New Komeito Party is a Buddhist political party. The Komeito or 'Clean Government Party' ..."
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ The New Republic – Volume 154, Issues 1-13, 1966, P.22
  11. ↑ Hiroshi Aruga, "Sōka Gakkai and Japanese politics", in Global citizens, the Sōka Gakkai Buddhist Movement in the world

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