Komeito, the third largest political party in Japan, is striving not to antagonize but to be friends with as many rival groups as possible in a determined bid to win in the Upper House election scheduled for this summer. The principal reason for pursuing this tactic, which has been described by some as "omni-directional diplomacy," is to give added color to the 80th anniversary this year of the founding of its parent organization, Soka Gakkai, a Buddhist lay organization that claims to have followers among 8 million households in Japan.

As the political arm of Soka Gakkai, Komeito was a junior partner in the previous coalition government with the Liberal Democratic Party. Lately, Komeito has made various moves that are interpreted by political observers as signs of it trying to be friendly with rival parties.

For some time from the beginning of March, Yuichi Ichikawa, former Komeito secretary general, stopped making public appearances at the party's official functions. On Jan. 18, Ichikawa, who had retired from politics in 2003, made a political comeback by being appointed as the party's "permanent adviser." Ichikawa is known to have close relations with Ichiro Ozawa, all-powerful secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan.