Yukio Edano, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, wipes sweat off his face between live interviews after the lower house election, in Minato Ward, Tokyo, on Oct. 31, 2021. (Mainichi/Ririko Maeda)

       TOKYO -- The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) only won 96 seats in the Oct. 31 House of Representatives election, down 14 seats from what it held prior to the poll. Within the party, there were calls to question the responsibility of the party's executives, including its leader Yukio Edano.

       The CDP aimed to increase its number of seats by joining hands with the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and other opposition parties, but lost its strength and suffered serious damage such as deputy leader Kiyomi Tsujimoto's defeat in the Osaka No. 10 constituency and her failure to win a seat in the proportional representation bloc.

       CDP Secretary General Tetsuro Fukuyama told reporters on the morning of Nov. 1, "As executive members of the party, we are responsible for the results of the election. I have made up my mind about my own response."

       Five opposition parties, including the CDP and the JCP, unified their candidates in 213 constituencies. However, although the CDP won two more seats in the proportional representation bloc than the 37 it won in the previous general election, the main opposition party struggled in single-seat constituencies, winning only 57 seats, highlighted by the defeat of heavyweights such as Ichiro Ozawa and Kishiro Nakamura.

       One day after the House of Representatives election, Tetsuro Fukuyama, secretary general of the CDP, bows his head at a news conference about the results of the election, at the Diet building in Tokyo on Nov. 1, 2021. (Mainichi/Kan Takeuchi)

       Edano also had an unexpectedly close race with Hideki Makihara, a former lower house member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, in the Saitama No. 5 constituency. In the end, Edano beat Makihara by about 6,000 votes, but the announcement of his victory was delayed until after midnight of Oct. 31, and Makihara secured his seat in the proportional representation bloc.

       The JCP also failed to reach the 12 seats it had before the election, winning only 10 seats (one in the single-seat constituency and nine in the proportional representation bloc).

       Edano and his fellow party members had been pushing for unified opposition candidates in the hope of gaining more votes from JCP supporters, but there was originally strong opposition from CDP supporters, such as the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo).

       The defeat in the lower house election has led to a growing backlash within the CDP, with a mid-level member of the party criticizing the results as being quite harsh and the opposition's united front as ineffective. The member called for a change in the party's executives, including Edano and Fukuyama, saying, "We need to rebuild our system for next year's House of Councillors election."

       (Japanese original by Kenta Miyahara, Political News Department)

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