Komeito

Komeito (公明党, Kōmeitō), formerly New Komeito and abbreviated NKP, is a political party in Japan originally founded by members of the Buddhist Japanese new religious movement Soka Gakkai in 1964. The current incarnation of the party was formed in 1998. Since 2012, it has served in government as the junior coalition partner of the Liberal Democratic Party. Natsuo Yamaguchi has been the president of the party since 8 September 2009 and currently serves as a member of the House of Councillors (the upper house) in the National Diet, the Japanese national legislature (elected in the 2019 Japanese House of Councillors election, constituency is Tokyo at-large district).

After the 2012 Japanese general election, the party held 31 seats in the lower house and 19 seats in the upper house. The number of lower house seats increased to 35 after the 2014 Japanese general election and to 25 seats in the upper house after winning 14 in the 2016 general election. In the 2017 Tokyo prefectural election, the party garnered a total of 23 seats, up one from the previously held 22 seats. It lost six seats, down to 29 seats in the lower house after the 2017 Japanese general election. In 2021 general election, the party gained 3 seats, increasing to 32 seats.