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Japan's DPJ, JIP agree to form Diet group to take on LDP in next election

Xinhua, December 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

Japan's two main opposition parties will establish a parliamentary group this month with a view to countering the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's considerable control over both houses of parliament.

The Japan Innovation Party (JIP) leader, Yorihisa Matsuno, who was reelected on Sunday over his opponent Jiro Ono, chief of the opposition party's general council, is keen to see a realignment of opposition parties to unite on common policies to better stand against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruing LDP-led coalition in the upper house elections pegged for next summer.

At talks on Monday, Matsuno and the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Katsuya Okada discussed the parliamentary caucus and agreed a new group would be launched by the end of this month as the beginning of a realignment of opposition parties ahead of the regular Diet session starting Jan. 4 and, in particular, ahead of the upper house vote in 2016.

The two leaders said they will make a concerted effort to consolidate their parties' common policies as they look to take on the LDP-led bloc in the Diet and upcoming elections.

Previous discussions to unite both opposition parties were shelved in September due to a rift in the JIP, which saw influential Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto bolt from the party a month earlier.

But Matsuno, who will see his tenure run until September 2018, told his supporters following his reelection that the party was gearing up for nationwide political reform.

"Reform-minded people should get united to rebuild the country," he said at a party meeting, adding that realignment of the opposition camp had moved from rhetoric to actuality and the speeding up of tangible action in this direction was his top priority and a new parliamentary caucus with other opposition parties would be formed by the end of the year.

"We will create a new political party next year, with the aim of seizing power in the next election for the House of Representatives, the all-important lower chamber," Matsuno pledged. Enditem