By Takayuki Tanaka / The Yomiuri Shimbun

8:00 JST, August 9, 2025

Political parties seem to have a life expectancy. As a party gets older, it is inevitable that it will wane. Many voters may naturally think of this when they see the results of July’s House of Councillors election.

Almost all traditional parties suffered losses, while many relatively young parties achieved their goals and claimed victory. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party, established in 1955, lost many seats and fell short of even the “must-win target” set by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Its coalition partner Komeito, which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, also lost heavily. The ruling bloc’s loss of its majority in the House of Councillors came less than a year after its defeat in the House of Representatives election last October.

Founded in 1922 despite a harsh crackdown by the police and having the longest history of any Japanese party, the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) also performed poorly in the recent upper house election. The Social Democratic Party, descended from the defunct Japan Socialist Party, which was once the largest opposition party and had faced off against the LDP for nearly four decades, managed to get one seat, but its percentage of the votes decreased.

What drew the most attention was that Sanseito, created in 2020, made remarkable gains to become the sixth largest opposition party in the upper house. The Democratic Party for the People, also formed in 2020, won 17 seats, its best upper house election result so........

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