(Corrects year of establishment of DPFP to 2020 from 2000 in July 6 story)
By Kiyoshi Takenaka
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan holds an upper house election on Sunday that is key to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's attempt to gain firmer control of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to enable it and its Komeito junior partner to push through legislation.
Here are key facts about Japan's main political parties.
LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Established: 1955
Website: jimin.jp/english/
Number of upper house seats up for re-election this time: 55
Number of upper house seats up for re-election in 2025: 56
The conservative party has been in power almost continuously since its foundation, either on its own or in a coalition, and has formed close ties with business and the bureaucracy.
Faced with China's maritime expansion and North Korea's missile and nuclear development, the LDP aims to boost defence spending sharply, using a NATO goal of 2% of gross domestic product on defence as a guide.
Established: 1955
Website: jimin.jp/english/
Number of upper house seats up for re-election this time: 55
Number of upper house seats up for re-election in 2025: 56
The conservative party has been in power almost continuously since its foundation, either on its own or in a coalition, and has formed close ties with business and the bureaucracy.
Faced with China's maritime expansion and North Korea's missile and nuclear development, the LDP aims to boost defence spending sharply, using a NATO goal of 2% of gross domestic product on defence as a guide.
That would be a departure from Japan's decades-old practice of keeping defence spending at about 1% of GDP but public support for bolstering defence is growing after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
While opposition parties call for cutting or abolishing a 10% sales tax to help the public cope with soaring food and energy prices, Kishida believes the levy should be maintained to support the ageing country's social security system.
KOMEITO
Established: 1964
Website: komei.or.jp/en/
Number of upper house seats up for re-election this time: 14
Number of upper house seats up for re-election in 2025: 14
Backed by a Buddhist lay organisation, the Soka Gakkai, the Komeito party was a junior partner in LDP-led governments for 10 years until the ruling alliance's election defeat in 2009. But it returned to power with the LDP in a December 2012 lower house election.
Komeito is more moderate on security issues than the LDP and it proposes shaping defence within an exclusively defensive security policy. The party seeks to promote the interests of the less well-off when it comes to economic policy.
CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF JAPAN (CDPJ)
Established: 2020
Website: cdp-japan.jp/english
The centre-left CDPJ is Japan's largest opposition party. Its roots lie in the Democratic Party of Japan, which succeeded in defeating the LDP-Komeito alliance in 2009 and held power for three years.