Japan’s opposition parties join forces against ruling party
Japan’s opposition parties appear to have finally woken up to the fact that they need to cooperate and collaborate if they are to ever topple the political behemoth that is the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which impressed few people when it was in power for three years from 2009, has announced it is to merge with the Japan Innovation Party (Ishin) and adopt a new name.
The realignment in the opposition’s ranks comes at the same time as the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) declared that it will refrain from putting forward candidates in some constituencies in the anticipated elections for both the Upper and Lower houses of the Japanese parliament.
And while that move may fall short of the JCP actively working with its rivals, the move is designed to help opposition parties put forward unified candidates to better challenge the ruling coalition of the LDP and Komeito.
Despite the opposition parties’ efforts to draw a veil over their patchy political histories – only the JCP can be proud of its showing in the 2014 general election, with the 21 seats it took an increase of 13 – analysts do not anticipate the LDP’s leadership suffering too many sleepless nights over this realignment.
It strikes me as more an act of desperation, of two parties that need to look new to try to get a fresh start with the voters
Jun Okumura, a visiting scholar at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs, described the merger of the DPJ and Ishin as “a reunion of old flames; two parties with nowhere to go, not much of a future, no core constituencies and no star power”.