With the defeat of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's Democratic Party of Japan all but assured, the real uncertainty heading into the Dec. 16 Lower House election, campaigning for which kicked off Tuesday, is whether the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito alliance can secure a majority or whether the new "third-force" parties will take enough seats to be a factor.
While the overall picture is practically the reverse of the previous 2009 election, when the LDP had little hope of hanging on, there is an added wrinkle: New political parties have formed alliances to break into the virtual two-party system. These newcomers hope to attract voters fed up with the DPJ's failure to implement promised policies and the decades-long rule of the LDP and its politics of playing to vested interests.
In all, 12 parties have thrown their hats in the ring. But the two new forces getting the most attention — Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) and Nippon Mirai no To (Tomorrow Party of Japan) — were born out of hasty mergers and have been criticized for chasing new members with a hodgepodge of policies instead of coherent agendas.