The Social Democratic Party will announce an amicable divorce from the Liberal Democratic Party as early as Saturday, four years after forming an unlikely alliance of left and right in part to enable the LDP to return to power.
After the alliance breaks up the LDP will return as Japan's sole ruling party, the same role it played from 1955 until August 1993.
Senior SDP members said they held a plenary session Thursday morning and agreed to leave a decision to the party's three top leaders, including SDP head Takako Doi, on the exact timing of the termination of its alliance with the LDP and New Party Sakigake. Sakigake has said it will follow the SDP's lead and also leave the alliance.