Komeito, the Buddhist-backed political partner of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), is grappling with what it calls an “existential crisis” after a bruising defeat in July’s Upper House election compounded internal fractures and exposed a growing disconnect with its traditional support base.The party’s stark assessment was contained in a postmortem report, formally approved on Thursday, that acknowledged the scale of the setback. At a subsequent senior party meeting, Secretary...