Japanese Communist Party’s Tomoko Tamura faces leadership questions ahead of polls

One year after Tomoko Tamura became head of the Japanese Communist Party, she faces tough questions about her leadership as the party prepares for this summer’s Tokyo assembly and Upper House elections.

The JCP holds 11 seats in total. But only seven seats — four proportional and three single district — are being contested this year. Tamura has set a goal of increasing the party’s proportional seat total from four to five in the Upper House election.

“If we can get our true message out, we’ll be able to emerge from among the other opposition parties. So I want to aim for 6.5 million proportional votes,” Tamura said at a Jan. 11 news conference