Overview
- Japan’s Upper House announced that Kenichiro Saito has left the Liberal Democratic Party caucus, which reverted its name to “Liberal Democratic Party.”
- Saito said on X that he sought to dissolve the arrangement after NHK Party leader Takashi Tachibana’s Nov. 9 defamation arrest, citing a wish not to burden the government.
- The LDP had brought Saito into an LDP-led caucus in October to bolster its position after losing a secure majority in the July election.
- Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi argued the tie-up was with Saito as an independent and declined to comment on the ongoing police investigation.
- Opposition figures, including the Communist Party’s Akira Koike, criticized that stance and pressed the LDP over its responsibility for the alliance.