Pledging to take power in the upcoming general election, the Democratic Party of Japan and the Liberal Party celebrated their merger Sunday at a national convention in Tokyo.
They had already registered the merger at the Diet; with Sunday's convention, the Liberal Party was formally dissolved and its members absorbed by the surviving party, the DPJ.
"If the DPJ wins in the next general election and captures power, it will be the first change of administration through the victory of a No. 1 opposition party," DPJ President Naoto Kan told more than 200 party Diet members and local chapter representatives packing a large hall in a Tokyo hotel.