The LDP is strong in the countryside, while New Komeito is powerful in many urban districts.
Mr Ikeda took over the leadership in 1960 and soon formed the Komeito (Clean Government Party).
But Mr Koizumi's junior coalition partner, the Buddhist-backed New Komeito, has balked at the idea.
The Buddhist-backed New Komeito's 24 upper-house seats would give Mr Obuchi the majority he needs.
The LDP and its ally, New Komeito, can muster enough support from other parties to cause gridlock.
Did the prospect of an Abe Shinzo-led Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito government push up stocks?
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Tokyo metropolitan elections that month will command all the energies of the LDP's junior coalition partner, New Komeito.
But New Komeito is resistant to the kinds of reforms that Mr Koizumi is billed as wanting to make.
But Mr Koizumi may ignore their pleas, despite New Komeito's growing clout in the eyes of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
LDP, New Komeito faces an election for Japan's upper house in July.
This is especially important because the assembly is the power base of the LDP's coalition partner, New Komeito, which gives the party its majority.
In the next election, polls suggest, the LDP cannot win by itself, nor even only with the support of its old ally, New Komeito, a Buddhist-linked party.
Much of the pressure for the stimulus package came from the LDP's junior coalition partner, New Komeito, a Buddhist-affiliated party which hitherto has played an insignificant role.
Of course it takes two to Tango, and the LDP and Komeito blow hot and cold toward the idea (currently more cold) so this is an outside possibility.
They even jumped into coalitions with the LDP, first the socialists, now the New Conservatives and the Buddhist-backed New Komeito, leaving voters distrustful of what they stand for.
In inviting the New Komeito into the coalition, Mr Obuchi may find he has more on his hands than the couple of dozen upper-house votes he bargained for.
Many people are uneasy about a party with ties to religious organizations - in this case, Komeito is linked to the controversial Buddhist Soka Gakkai - being in government.
LDP, with its two small coalition partners, the New Komeito and the Conservative Party, a majority in the house and allow it to keep control of the main committees.
The other party Mr Obuchi needs to woo if he is to keep his grip on power is the New Komeito, which he lured into his ruling alliance last October.
He should really have been more respectful of New Komeito's main sponsor, the Soka Gakkai, whose founder, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, was imprisoned during the war because of his opposition to state-sponsored Shintoism.
Already, the Ozawa party seems likely to become the third largest in the lower house, the key parliamentary chamber, coming after the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) crowding out the New Komeito (NK).
That is why Mr Ozawa is in a huff this week, and why, ultimately, he will have to cave in on electoral reform and grudgingly make room for the New Komeito as well.
That is, the three partners in the alliance - LDP, New Komeito and the defectors from Ozawa's group, now calling themselves the Conservative Party - will coordinate their campaigns and support each other's candidates.
But the New Komeito has been alarmed that the 50 seats that Mr Ozawa wants to get rid of would be from the 200 in the lower house that are allocated by proportional representation.
He warned the lists might constitute a violation of election laws. (Such civil action is legal until election campaigning formally starts, which is June 12.) The New Komeito party, a coalition partner of the LDP, sent Wave 21 a note hinting it may file a defamation suit.
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