City chiefs join up to create '3rd force'
Source: Agencies |
November 18, 2012, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
OUTSPOKEN leaders from Japan's two biggest cities formed a national political party yesterday, 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 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 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Merry-go-round
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 yesterday'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 the phasing-out of nuclear energy and participating in the US-led trans-Pacific trade block.
Ishihara, 80, now heads the Japan Restoration Party, replacing Hashimoto, who now serves No. 2 post. Hashimoto, 43, has said he will remain mayor of Japan's second-largest city and not run in the election.
The DPJ, in power for three years, has grown unpopular largely because of its handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis and plans to double the sales tax.
Noda's most likely successor is LDP head and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Polls indicate that the LDP will win the most seats in the 480-seat lower house but will fall far short of a majority.
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 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 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Merry-go-round
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 yesterday'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 the phasing-out of nuclear energy and participating in the US-led trans-Pacific trade block.
Ishihara, 80, now heads the Japan Restoration Party, replacing Hashimoto, who now serves No. 2 post. Hashimoto, 43, has said he will remain mayor of Japan's second-largest city and not run in the election.
The DPJ, in power for three years, has grown unpopular largely because of its handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis and plans to double the sales tax.
Noda's most likely successor is LDP head and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Polls indicate that the LDP will win the most seats in the 480-seat lower house but will fall far short of a majority.
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