Political parties with fewer than 20 Diet seats face an identity crisis as the legislature moves closer to a two-party system following the huge gains made by the Democratic Party of Japan in the July 2007 Upper House election.
With Lower House members' terms expiring next September — unless Prime Minister Taro Aso dissolves the chamber early and calls a poll — small parties are struggling to make their presence known to voters.
Headlines tend to focus only on the rivalry between the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling coalition, at the expense of smaller parties, which thus become virtually invisible.