Seikatsu no To (People's Life Party) has rebranded itself as the Liberal Party, adopting the name of a recently defunct conservative party in a bid to lure right-of-center voters away from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

The party registered its name change at the internal affairs ministry on Wednesday.

Party chief Ichiro Ozawa headed the old Liberal Party from 1998 to 2003, though that party had a sharply different policy platform.