The Japanese Communist Party is riding high.

With the public increasingly dismayed by the thin results of Abenomics and wary of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe¡¯s aggressive stance on defense, the party has tapped into anti-Abe sentiment over the past few years. It more than doubled its seats in the 2014 Lower House election.

In the run-up to the Upper House election this summer, the JCP is playing a pivotal role in an electoral tie-up with opposition parties that agree on one thing: Abe must go.