Two candidates in the upcoming Lower House election who share the surname Suzuki are fighting for the fourth consecutive time for a seat in a tight duel in Tokyo¡¯s No. 10 constituency, an area encompassing the central Bunkyo and Toshima wards.

The Liberal Democratic Party¡¯s Hayato Suzuki has been beating the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan¡¯s Yosuke Suzuki in the district since 2017.

This time around, though, the formation of the Centrist Reform Alliance, a force born out of the merger of the CDP and Komeito, has shaken things up and given Yosuke Suzuki new hope in the Feb. 8 Lower House election.

Since his first stump speech on Tuesday in front of Otsuka Station, Yosuke Suzuki has appeared mindful of his new support.

¡°Here¡¯s my favorite mandate: to engage our fellow citizens in dialogue, to share in their struggles, and to live out our lives among them,¡± Yosuke Suzuki, 50, said as he lambasted the administration of Sanae Takaichi for what he said was inept handling of foreign affairs and the economy.

The expression is the incipit of one of Komeito¡¯s most famous slogans, declared by Komeito founder and Buddhist group Soka Gakkai leader Daisaku Ikeda in 1962, and often used by party executives, not just on the campaign trail.

¡±If you ask me, the LDP was like a greedy, slovenly husband who recently had turned a bit violent,¡± he went on. ¡°Don¡¯t you think Komeito was the shining light that just got tired of all that?¡±

After two failed attempts in 2016 and 2017, Yosuke Suzuki received varying degrees of support from the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and won a seat in 2021 and 2024, but only through proportional representation.

In many areas across the country, the fight over former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe¡¯s security legislation was the starting point of joint cooperation among the CDP, the JCP and small local parties on the political left.

The JCP hasn¡¯t fielded any candidate in Tokyo¡¯s No. 10 district since 2021.

This time, Yosuke Suzuki¡¯s embrace of the CRA meant he had to put an end to almost 10 years of cooperation with the JCP. That very premise of cooperation is gone, said Yoshinobu Kishi, the head of the JCP¡¯s Toshima branch. And not only because the CRA¡¯s stance on security policy ¡ª i.e. fully recognizing the legislation enacted under the LDP-Komeito coalition ¡ª is incompatible with the JCP¡¯s position. The two parties have also long been at loggerheads in national and local politics, too.

In 2021, Komeito led an initiative to pass a resolution in Toshima Ward against the JCP for potentially breaching the election law before the kickoff of a campaign for the Tokyo Metropolitan...