(Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)
Leaders of eight political parties pose before a debate at the Japan National Press Club on July 2, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan. From left to right are Sanseito Secretary General Sohei Kamiya, Japanese Communist Party Chairperson Tomoko Tamura, Komeito Chief Representative Tetsuo Saito, Constitutional Democratic Party President Yoshihiko Noda, Japan's Prime Minister and Liberal Democratic Party President Shigeru Ishiba, Governor of Osaka and Japan Innovation Party Co-Representative Hirofumi Yoshimura, Democratic Party for the People Representative Yuichiro Tamaki and Reiwa Shinsengumi President Taro Yamamoto.
Editor's Note: For significant elections, RANE publishes a series of scenario analyses focused on different outcomes of major elections, describing how an election outcome might unfold with implications for each potential outcome. In 2025 so far, we have profiled Germany , Canada , Australia , Poland and South Korea . We now profile Japan. Japan will hold elections for 125 of the 248 members of the House of Councilors — commonly referred to as the upper house of Japan's Diet — on July 20. The upper house is usually weaker than Japan's lower house, the House of Representatives, as the latter has final say on the budget and prime minister selection.
