An attempt by two parties, Kibo no To (Party of Hope) and the Democratic Party, to take leadership of the opposition camp through a merger ended in apparent failure as only 62 of their combined 107 Diet members joined the newly created Democratic Party for the People (DPP). The move by two of the forces born out of the breakup of the DP, then the No. 1 opposition force, ahead of the Lower House election last October to merge again just months later seems hardly comprehensible from the viewpoints of voters. The fact that 40 percent of their members refused to join the DPP appears to reflect the lack of voters' hope for yet another "new" opposition force.
Since the former Democratic Party of Japan's crushing fall from power in 2012, the opposition forces have gone through a series of realignments as they struggled in the face of the dominance of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling coalition. It makes sense for the opposition camp to explore a united front against the ruling parties since healthy competition in politics is lost when the opposition is weak and fragmented. However, the failures of the opposition camp over the past six years — in which Abe's ruling alliance won landslide victories in all nationwide elections — show that they are not trusted by voters as a viable governing alternative.
Instead of continuing to seek new unions for the sheer sake of numbers, the opposition parties should rebuild themselves by first grappling with their own failures. They should reflect on why popular support for the opposition do not go up even when approval ratings of the Abe administration go down. They should think again about the roles required of the opposition camp — a policy-based competition with the ruling force — and take the steps needed to fulfill those roles.