In a bid for a merger of the four parties in the Minyuren parliamentary group, former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa on March 9 proposed that the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest of the four, effectively absorb the three others to create a new party.
Hosokawa's proposal, which calls for the new group to retain the DPJ name, is aimed at changing the reluctance of DPJ leaders to go along with the proposal.
It was not clear whether the four member parties of Minyuren -- the DPJ, Minseito (Good Governance Party), Shinto Yuai (Amity Party) and the Democratic Reform Party -- will accept the proposal. DPJ members said they will decide today (March 10) whether to accept it.
Hosokawa said in the morning that Minseito, Shinto Yuai and the DRP should be dissolved and integrated into the DPJ. He made the proposal at Minyuren's high-level strategy session, which he chairs.
He said the new party should be launched before the next House of Councilors election in July, they said.