Mainichi Shimbun

[Akira]

Sensing Rare Opportunity, DPJ and SDP Merge to Form Democratic Party

TOKYO - In a seemingly strategic move to benefit from the loss of trust in the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Japan and the Social Democratic Party have announced an immediate merger into the Democratic Party, creating a new political force that in the most recent polls would steal the LDP's majority in the National Diet. The merger was announced in a joint press conference by the former leader of the DPJ Asanuma Kanna and the former leader of the SDP Tamura Kei. Miss Asanuma will take the role as leader of the Democratic Party and leader in the House of Representatives, while mister Tamura will be her deputy in the Democratic Party and leader in the House of Councillors.

The merger creates the largest centre progressive party in modern Japanese history and the first single-party threat to the post-War dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party. If elections were held to day it would secure 308 out of 480 seats in the House of Representatives and 130 out of 242 seats in the House of Councillors, allowing the Democratic Party to govern without a coalition partner. While this would not be the first time since 1950 that the LDP was removed from power, previous attempts required large multi-party coalitions that always proved unstable and failed to act on the momentum. While elections for the House of Representatives are not planned until 2009, the House of Councillors elections will be held in July.

The loss of confidence in the LDP started with the scandal in which the records of 50 million citizens who had paid pension premiums were lost during the digitalization efforts of the Social Insurance Agency in the late 1990's. Loss of confidence over the scandal itself, which also occurred under LDP administration, and the current inability of Prime Minister Shinzo and his Cabinet to deal with the fallout have eroded confidence to historic lows. Recent investigations of ties between senior LDP officials and the Yakuza have further resulted in a significant loss of support

Miss Asanuma has positioned the Democratic Party as the defender of the common person's interests and announced plans to replace the Social Insurance Agency with a new Pension Service, to expand social security benefits in general, revitalize the economy that has been lagging behind global developments for the past two decades, and seek out closer trade and other ties with neighbours in the Asia-Pacific region to attract foreign investments. She also intends to establish a new Ministry that will work on efforts to reverse the demographic decline and boost the birth rate.

Responses from the parties other than the LDP and the new Democratic Party to the news have been mixed, with many excited at the opportunity of the LDP losing power but simultaneously worried that the 1.5 Party system will now be replaced with a de-facto two-party system.