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A group of former Your Party members headed by its previous Secretary-General Kenji Eda launched a new political party Wednesday with 14 supporters united in creating a viable opposition force to counter Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's autocratic ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Under the provisional party name "Yui no to" which translates to Unity Party, Eda is seeking to draw in other opposition party lawmakers to "effectively govern the country," Eda was quoted as telling his new coterie at the party's inaugural meeting.
"Our party needs to act as a catalyst for bringing together opposition parties to create a force that can govern the country," the new party's leader said.
"As things stand, the current opposition camp can't stop the ruling LDP, which is out of control, and the public is losing faith in the opposition camp's abilities to mitigate the LDP's power in parliament," Eda told a press briefing following his election as the party's president.
"We, as a growing party, are committed to abolishing politics led by bureaucrats and will eliminate autonomous interests and seek to decentralize the current power base," Eda added.
The new policy guidelines adopted by Eda's party seek to bring about a concerted political realignment in the next election, with the party's eye on spring 2015, which will see a string of local gubernatorial and mayoral elections, at which Eda will look to bolster support for his party.
Eda has not completely ruled out uniting forces with the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) or the Japan Restoration Party, which he hopes will be dissolved, but stated that the current opposition bloc is "in a state of chaos" and has allowed the ruling LDP-led coalition to act in an autocratic manner as they hold the most seats in both houses of parliament.
"We will proceed on the basis that we won't rule out dissolving the party to create a bigger one," Eda said, adding that the main opposition DPJ should take a more proactive role in guiding the opposition camp.
Eda also said that he will work towards ironing out current ideological and policy differences between opposition parties, in the interests of establishing a veritable, singular opposition front.
The party, as well as being opposed to the new nationalist stance of the LDP, also stands against nuclear energy and wishes to see the planned doubling of the nation's consumption tax to 10 percent freezed, Eda stated.
At the party's inaugural meeting, three executives were elected, with two of them being first-term lawmakers, leading some political pundits to claim the party lacks experience, but upper house lawmaker Jiro Ono will become the party's new secretary- general, and lower house lawmaker Mito Kakizawa will assume the role of policy chief.
Other members, according to Eda, will assume multiple roles, until the party grows to a point where hierarchical positions can be assigned and specific policy-related roles delegated.
On Dec. 9 Eda confirmed his resignation from Your Party, citing irreconcilable differences with Yoshimi Watanabe, the party's leader, who has "overly warmed relations" with Abe and his ruling LDP coalition.
Eda was the former secretary-general of Your Party and along with his allies the mass defections from Your Party has undermined the party's political voice in parliament, with Watanabe stating that the 40 percent reduction of party members who bolted with Eda was "abnormal."
Eda and Watanabe's relationship had been deteriorating for a protracted period of time, sources close to the matter have said, with Eda's defection not wholly unexpected.
Watanabe, in a recent interview, said he would not make any attempts to persuade Eda and his coterie to stay.
Following souring relations between Eda and Watanabe, Eda was unceremoniously relieved of his duties as the party's secretary general in August, but intra-party tensions became untenable over the ruling bloc's steamrolling of the controversial secrecy bill through both houses of parliament recently.
Eda has openly stated he intends to realign the opposition camp to better challenge the ruling coalition, with specific regard to the LDP's recent enactment of the highly-contested and publicly opposed state secrecy law.
The newly-formed Unity Party chief is a former trade ministry official who was elected to parliament in 2002.
He abstained from the lower hose vote on the controversial secrecy bill last month and has stated that under the current leadership, the nation's democratic fundamentals have been " undermined."
Eda and Watanabe will now be pitched head-to-head, with Eda seeking opposition realignment and the creation of a larger party, while Watanabe is pushing for increased unity between opposition parties.
