2026 POLLS: JIP Worried about Being Outshone by LDP Takaichi

Tokyo, Feb. 4 (Jiji Press)–The Japan Innovation Party is worried that it is overshadowed by popular Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who heads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, in campaigning for Sunday’s House of Representatives election. The poll for the all-important lower parliamentary chamber is the first national election since the two parties formed a ruling coalition last October. The JIP hoped that the election would help boost its presence across the country. “We want you all to compare the LDP and the JIP, and see which will push forward with reforms,” JIP leader Hirofumi Yoshimura said in a stump speech in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, western Japan, on Monday. He did not hide his sense of rivalry. Opinion polls conducted by media outlets have shown public approval ratings for the Takaichi administration at around 60 pct. The strong support would be working in favor of the ruling coalition, if the two parties had worked out an election cooperation arrangement, as the LDP had done with its previous partner, Komeito. In the upcoming poll, however, the LDP and the JIP have no such arrangement, with 85 out of the 289 single-seat constituencies involving a head-on battle between LDP and JIP candidates. Many within the coalition believe that the majority of those supporting the Takaichi administration will vote for the LDP in such constituencies. Hoping to reverse the situation, the JIP is going all out to attract voters. With the JIP struggling to differentiate its election platform from that of the LDP, the JIP is claiming that the LDP stands in the way of policy shifts proposed by Takaichi. “There are quite a few people within the LDP who are against policy shifts,” Yoshimura said in Kusatsu, also in Shiga, on Monday. “That’s why we need an accelerator” driving changes within the coalition, he added, vowing that his party will take on that task. Still, his appeal seems to be falling on deaf ears. One JIP official said, “Our calls are not reaching the public.” Yoshimura and Takaichi appeared together before a crowd in front of JR Akihabara Station in Tokyo to deliver speeches on the first day of the official campaign period on Jan. 27. That was the only time when they campaigned together. The JIP and the LDP have since done little to boost momentum for cooperation to increase their seats in the Lower House. Although the JIP backs LDP candidates in 143 constituencies, an official within the LDP camp said, “There is little advantage to JIP endorsements because the party lacks organizational backing.” Takaichi is focusing her time and energy on helping her party’s candidates directly competing with JIP candidates. On Monday, she visited two such constituencies to ask for support for LDP candidates. “If the LDP boosts its number of (Lower House) seats significantly, the JIP won’t be treated properly as its partner,” a veteran JIP member said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]