Koki Kobayashi and three other rebels from the Liberal Democratic Party formed a new party Sunday, with Yasuo Tanaka, the outspoken governor of Nagano Prefecture, taking the top position.
The five-member party, named Nippon (Japan), is the second to be formed by dissident LDP members since the House of Representatives was dissolved two weeks ago after postal privatization was voted down.
"We the members of Nippon have gathered here with ambitions to save Japan, protect the people and change Kasumigaseki (the central bureaucratic district in Tokyo)," Tanaka told reporters at a news conference in a Tokyo hotel.