Komeito in the context of "Soka Gakkai"

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP; Japanese: 自由民主党, romanized: Jiyū-Minshutō), also known as Jimintō (自民党), is a major conservative and nationalist political party in Japan. Since its foundation in 1955, the LDP has been in power almost continuously—a period called the 1955 System—except from 1993 to 1996, and again from 2009 to 2012.

The LDP was formed in 1955 as a merger of two conservative parties, the Liberal Party and the Japan Democratic Party, and was initially led by prime minister Ichirō Hatoyama. The LDP supported Japan's alliance with the United States and fostered close links between Japanese business and government, playing a major role in the country's economic miracle from the 1960s to early 1970s and subsequent stability under prime ministers including Hayato Ikeda, Eisaku Satō, Kakuei Tanaka, Takeo Fukuda, and Yasuhiro Nakasone. Scandals and economic difficulties led to the LDP losing power in 1993 and 1994, and governing under a non-LDP prime minister from 1994 before regaining power in 1996. In 1999, the LDP entered into a coalition with Komeito.

The Liberal Democratic Party–Komeito coalition was an alliance in Japan between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito. A coalition government between the parties has been established twice: the first from 5 October 1999 to 16 September 2009, and the second from 26 December 2012 to 10 October 2025, when Komeito announced their exit from the coalition.

The 1955 system (Japanese: 55年体制, Hepburn: 55-nen Taisei), also known as the one-and-a-half party system, is a term used by scholars to describe the dominant-party system that has existed in Japan since 1955, in which the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has held by itself or in coalition with Komeito (from 1999 to 2025) a government nearly uninterrupted, with opposition parties largely incapable of forming significant or long lasting alternatives, other than for brief stints in 1993–1994 and 2009–2012. The terms 1955 system and the one-and-a-half party system are credited to Junnosuke Masumi [ja], who described the 1955 system as "a grand political dam into which the history of Japanese politics surge".

The years of Japan under the 1955 regime witnessed high economic growth, leading to the dominance of the ruling party in the Diet, with an undergirded tight connection between the bureaucracy and the business sector. Due to a series of LDP scandals and the 1992 burst of the Japanese asset price bubble, the LDP lost its majority in the House of Representatives in the 1993 general election, which initially signalled the end of the 1955 system. However, the left-wing Japan Socialist Party, the long-time opposition which finally gained a majority, would soon lose much of its support after it decided to form a coalition government with the arch-rival LDP just a year later, leading to the JSP being refounded as the SDP in 1996, and its coalition partner regaining power. The LDP briefly lost power again in 2009 to the now defunct Democratic Party of Japan before regaining it in 2012, retaining power up to the present day. Nevertheless, it lost its majority in the House of Representatives in the 2024 general election, and its majority in the House of Councillors in the 2025 election, forcing it to run a minority government for the first time.

General elections were held in Japan on August 30, 2009 to elect the 480 members of the House of Representatives. The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) defeated the ruling coalition – Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito Party – in a landslide, winning 221 of the 300 constituency seats and receiving 42.4% of the proportional block votes for another 87 seats, a total of 308 seats to only 119 for the LDP (64 constituency seats and 26.7% of the proportional vote).

Under the Constitution of Japan, this result virtually assured DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama would be the next prime minister of Japan. He was formally named to the post on September 16, 2009. Prime Minister Tarō Asō conceded late on the night of August 30, 2009, that the LDP had lost control of the government, and announced his resignation as party president. A leadership election was held on September 28, 2009.

House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on Sunday 10 July 2016 to elect 121 of the 242 members of the upper house of the National Diet, for a term of six years. As a result of the election, the Liberal Democratic Party–Komeito coalition gained ten seats for a total of 145 (60% of all seats in the house), the largest coalition achieved since the size of the house was set at 242 seats.

76 members were elected by single non-transferable vote (SNTV) and first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting in 45 multi- and single-member prefectural electoral districts; for the first time, there were two combined (gōku) single-member districts consisting of two prefectures each, Tottori-Shimane and Tokushima-Kōchi. This change and several other reapportionments were part of an electoral reform law passed by the Diet in July 2015 designed to reduce the maximum ratio of malapportionment in the House of Councillors below 3. The nationwide district which elects 48 members by D'Hondt proportional representation with most open lists remained unchanged.

Japan does not recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions. Several municipalities and prefectures issue same-sex partnership certificates, which provide some benefits, but do not offer equal legal recognition. Polling suggests that a significant majority of Japanese people support the legalization of same-sex marriage or partnerships, particularly the younger generation. Politically, the Constitutional Democratic Party, the Japanese Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party, Reiwa Shinsengumi, Komeito, and the Japan Innovation Party support legalizing same-sex marriage. However, the Liberal Democratic Party, which has been in power almost continuously since 1958, remains opposed to it.

On 17 March 2021, a district court in Sapporo ruled that the Civil Code provisions outlawing same-sex marriage were unconstitutional, arguing that laws or regulations that deprive same-sex couples of the legal benefits of marriage constitute "discriminatory treatment without a rational basis" and as such violate Article 14 of the Constitution of Japan. The court also ruled that Article 24 of the Constitution, which defines marriage as "based only on the mutual consent of both sexes", does not expressly prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages. Over the following two years, five other district courts issued rulings either upholding the ban or declaring it unconstitutional. In March 2024, the Sapporo High Court issued a verdict stating that the same-sex marriage ban violated the Constitution, the first time an appellate court had reached such a conclusion. The Tokyo High Court ruled similarly in October 2024. While these rulings did not legalize same-sex marriage in Japan, it is anticipated that they may pressure the National Diet to act on legislation opening marriage to same-sex couples. Bills were introduced to the Diet in 2019 and 2023.