As Nippon Mirai no To (Tomorrow Party of Japan) leader Yukiko Kada tours Japan drumming up support for her new group's candidates in the Dec. 16 election, she is facing a growing backlash in Shiga Prefecture, where she's the governor.
Political opponents, especially in the Liberal Democratic Party — which controls 25 of the 46 prefectural assembly seats in Shiga — are threatening to block Kada's local initiatives and are discussing lawsuits, while even her closest political supporters say she made a mistake by joining hands with Ichiro Ozawa, a former president of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.
Forming Nippon Mirai could well end up costing her in Shiga's 2014 gubernatorial election.