In a break from the usual rhetoric, Yukio Edano, leader of the largest opposition party in the Diet, is calling on smaller parties to join forces and form a larger joint parliamentary group within the Lower House to counter the overwhelming majority of the ruling bloc.
The move, announced Monday, is a departure from the usual dynamic that dominates relations between the opposition parties, with the two largest opposition parties often taking each other on and leaving the opposition fragmented.
It also comes on the heels of an election that left lawmakers in favor of constitutional revision just four seats shy of clinching the all-important two-thirds majority of the Upper House.