Democratic Party of Japan President Banri Kaieda on Saturday admitted that the opposition camp's leading force hasn't regained enough credibility to lead the charge against the ruling Liberal Democratic Party for the Upper House election.

"The public's disappointment with us has not changed," Kaieda said in an exclusive interview with The Japan Times, reflecting on last week's devastating Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, where it lost almost two-thirds of its seats. "The public does not trust us to be a strong opponent unless we restore this trust."

Without a clear strategy, the DPJ can't do much more than criticize Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic plan, dubbed "Abenomics," for failing to bring about tangible economic benefits, such as wage hikes, in the run-up to next month's House of Councilors poll.