Outspoken leaders from Japan’s two biggest cities formed a national political party on Saturday, seeking to become “a third force” to lure undecided voters and challenge the country’s two biggest parties.
Nationalist Shintaro Ishihara, who resigned as Tokyo governor to create his own party this week, said he is scrapping his four-day-old group to join the Japan Restoration Party formed in September by the young and brash mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto.
The announcement comes the day after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda dissolved the lower house of parliament, paving the way for December 16 elections. His ruling party is expected to give way to a weak coalition government divided over how to tackle Japan’s myriad problems. The biggest problems are getting a stagnant economy going again and reconstruction after the crippling March last year earthquake and tsunami.
Elections are set for December 16, with official campaigning starting on December 4. If Noda’s centrist party loses, the economically sputtering country will get its seventh prime minister in six and a half years.
Japan is going through a political transition with a merry-go-round of prime ministers and the mushrooming fringe parties to challenge the long-dominant Liberal Democrats’ return.
“This country is going to fall apart if we don’t act now,” Ishihara told Saturday’s party convention held in Osaka, announcing the merger of his party and Hashimoto’s. “I’ve decided to ignore small differences to join hands on common ground. This will be my last service for the country.”
Apparently Ishihara made concessions to Hashimoto’s policy supporting phase-out of nuclear energy and participating in the US-led trans-Pacific trade block. The timing of the election could pre-empt moves by more conservative challengers to build enough electoral support.