A bid by opposition forces Kibo no To (Party of Hope) and the Democratic Party to merge and create a new party — the latest move in a seemingly endless series of breakups and mergers within the opposition camp — comes just months after the DP, then the largest opposition party, split apart ahead of the Lower House election last October. At that time, many of its members joined Kibo no To to run on the ticket of the fledgling party just launched by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, who was riding a wave of popularity after defeating Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly race.
In the general election, the Koike-led Kibo no To quickly lost its momentum and ended up with disappointing results. While Abe's LDP-Komeito ruling coalition retained its two-thirds majority in the Lower House, the opposition camp ended up even more fragmented than before the election. Now both Kibo no To, which is no longer led by Koike, and the DP, comprising mainly Upper House members and aligned with former members of the Lower House who survived the race as independents, face dismal prospects. Popular support for each party in media polls is in the mere 1 percent range.
It may not come as a surprise that Kibo no To and the DP are exploring a merger to form a new force — which, if they can hold their ranks together, will edge out the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), another DP splinter group, as the largest opposition party in terms of the number of Diet members.