Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP)

(2017-2020), (2020-)

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) was established as a result of a split from the Democratic Party (民進党, DP) in 2017. While the majority of the DP sought alignment with the Party of Hope (希望の党) ahead of the general election in 2017, a “liberal” group lead by Yukio Edano left the DP to form the CDP.

The CDP is open to constitutional discussion; they describe their stance as “constitutionalistic constitutional deliberation (立憲的憲法論議)”. Regarding security, they assert that the reinterpretation of Article 9 in 2014 and the following approval of the bills in 2015, which enabled Japan to exercise its collective self-defense right, violated constitutionalism. On the other hand, they proclaim to work on legislation for same-sex marriage; they say that they would consider a constitutional amendment if it is legally appropriate. 

In September 2020, the CDP merged with a majority of members of the Democratic Party for the People (国民民主党), retaining the CDP name. 

The party's website periodically publishes articles summarizing the statements made by its members in the Commission on the Constitution of both the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors. By using tag searches on the site, related articles from the HR Commission on the Constitution and the HC Commission on the Constitution can be found.