Suginami Ward Chief, Others Form New Party

Tokyo, April 18 (Jiji Press)--Hiroshi Yamada, mayor of Tokyo's
Suginami Ward, and others on Sunday announced the creation of a new
political party.
The party, "Nippon Soushin," whose members also include former
Yokohama Mayor Hiroshi Nakada, aims to field at least 10 candidates in the
House of Councillors election this summer, said Yamada who became its
leader.
The party hopes to obtain at least five seats in the Upper House,
Yamada said.
He said that Japan's current government, like the previous
government, ends up pursuing pork-barrel policies, criticizing both the
ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the main opposition Liberal Democratic
Party, which lost to the DPJ in last year's general election.
Yamada drew a line between the new party and the established ones,
emphasizing the commitment to fiscal reform by himself and Nakada as
incumbent and former municipal "managers."
Key policy proposals of the new party, based on a political group
founded by Nakada last October, are corporate and income tax cuts,
decentralization through the reorganization of local governments into
regional blocs that have greater autonomy and liberalization of the
establishment of higher education schools, according to Yamada.
The party will announce its official election promises after the
"Golden Week" holidays from late April to early May. It will hold its
inauguration convention in late May.
Nakada took the No. 2 position in the party and former Yamagata
Governor Hiroshi Saito assumed the policy chief post.


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