After months of preparation, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's new political party, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), was formally inaugurated at a mid-September gathering that drew more than 3,000 supporters.
The country's only national political party based outside of Tokyo aims to field between 350 and 400 candidates in the next general election.
Defended by supporters as a much-needed populist uprising against Tokyo-based policies that have failed the country for decades and blasted by critics as a collection of amateurs pursuing a discredited neoconservative corporate agenda, Nippon Ishin no Kai is likely to play a major role in national politics over the coming months, either directly or through more subtle means.