Yosano, Others Seen to Form New Party on Thursday

Tokyo, April 5 (Jiji Press)--Former Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru
Yosano, who has offered to quit the main opposition Liberal Democratic
Party, and other lawmakers are set to form their planned new political party
on Thursday, sources have said.
The new party will likely be launched by five lawmakers, the
minimum required number for a political party under law.
The founding members, also including former Minister of Economy,
Trade and Industry Takeo Hiranuma, are slated to hold detailed talks on
Monday for kicking off the new party, the sources said. Hiranuma, a former
LDP member, is now an independent.
The party is seen aiming to fielding candidates in the Tokyo
constituency and under the proportional representation part in the House of
Councillors election this summer, in order to prevent the ruling Democratic
Party of Japan from securing a majority of seats on its own in the Upper
House through the coming triennial election, the sources said.
In television programs on Sunday, Yosano said the new party will be
launched within this week.
Under the current circumstances, the DPJ looks certain to score a
victory in the Upper House election, a development that will allow the party
to secure a simple majority in both the House of Representatives and the
Upper House, Yosano said.
For Japan's democracy, it is thus important to establish a sound
opposition force in the Upper House, he said.
The DPJ has a comfortable majority in the all-important Lower House
as it beat the long-ruling LDP in the Lower House election in August 2009.
But the party lacks a majority on its own in the Upper House.
The envisaged new party will likely be led jointly by Yosano and
Hiranuma, according to the sources. Under the public offices election law,
Hiranuma will be chief of the party, the sources said.
Besides Yosano and Hiranuma, Hiroyuki Sonoda, former acting
secretary-general of the LDP, and former transport minister Takao Fujii of
the LDP, are expected to join the new party.
Yosano said that at least one more lawmaker will become a member of
the party. Yosano, Hiranuma and Sonoda are Lower House members while Fujii
is a member of the Upper House.
In a related move, former Internal Affairs and Communications
Minister Kunio Hatoyama, who left the LDP in March, will hold a meeting with
Hiranuma on Monday on his possible participation in the planned new party.
Hatoyama, younger brother of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, told
reporters Sunday night that some young LDP lawmakers appear to be hoping to
join with him, adding that he needs to hold talks with such LDP members.
Meanwhile, Yosano stressed that the new party will field candidates
under the proportional representation part in the coming Upper House
election. The party will also consider putting up candidates in the Tokyo
and other multiple-seat prefectural constituencies.
END


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