Split of Japan's Largest Opposition Party Minshinto
There is the communist party in Japan. It has a long history as it was established, though unofficially, in 1922. It had 21 seats among 475 seats of the lower house before the dissolution a weak ago. This party is positioned on the leftest side of the Japanese politics.
However, the ruling parties consist of the Liberal Democratic Party (286/475) and Komeito (35/475). Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is president of LDP. Unlike Democrats in the US, LDP is conservative and pro-capitalism. Komeito is a party based on a Buddhist association called Sokagakkai. These ruling parties have held power in these decades except some minor periods such as that between 2009 and 2012 in the aftermath of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.
There is a very minor socialistic party that was, however, once the leading opposition party till 1990s. But other seats have been mostly occupied by Minsihinto (88/475) that held power between 2009 and 2012. Minishinto consists of very conservative members as those of LDP and very liberal or socialistic members.
When PM Abe dissolved the lower house, it was expected that Minshinto would become the major rival. But Minshinto has been split into a conservative group going to join Kibonoto, a liberal group going to join the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, and independents in this process toward the official lower-house election period. Kibonoto was recently launched by popular Tokyo Governor Ms. Yuriko Koike, while the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan was set today by Mr. Edano, one of the candidates in the Minshinto presidential election held a month ago. Kibonoto is essentially conservative as Ms. Koike is an ex-lower-house member of LDP, while the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is liberal because of Mr. Edano's political stance.
The coming general election has been set as PM Abe dissolved the lower house while criticism on him has been getting stronger due to the Moritomo/Kake scandals where PM Abe is believed to have supported the Moritomo school and a Kake-associated university by using his political influence beyond commonsense in the politics.
But it has triggered the split of Minshinto, the largest opposition party, because Tokyo Governor Ms. Koike suddenly launched Kibinoto to challenge PM Abe based on her great popularity. Most of lower-house members of Minshinto wanted to use Mr. Koike's popularity for reelection. President of Minshinto Mr. Maehara promised them that Kibonoto would accept them all after negotiation with Ms. Koike. But it was made clear that Ms. Koike would reject liberal members of Minshinto, which triggered big commotion among liberal lower-house members of Minshinto, leading to Edano's formation of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
As prospect, in the coming general election, conservative voters who don't support PM Abe due to the scandal would vote for Kibonoto, while liberal voters who who don't support PM Abe from the beginning would vote for the Japan Communist Party or the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. Only conservative voters who don't mind Abe's scandal would vote for LDP/Komeito.
So, there is a possibility that PM Abe will lose a majority of seats in the lower house. It might be good or bad in the current diplomatic situation where US President Trump is losing his popularity and North Korea is still willing to further pursue development of nuclear missiles, while MP Abe was a strong tie with President Trump.
Therefore, many Japanese are turning strong attention to the coming election day of August 22, 2017.
