Japan’s main opposition party, the Centrist Reform Alliance, formalized its plan to split on Wednesday, with its members to leave based on their prior affiliations to its two founding parties, its head Junya Ogawa said, after full merger talks collapsed.
Lawmakers from the Komeito party are set to return to it while those from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan plan to form a new party, Ogawa told reporters in parliament.
The two sides will seek to form a new parliamentary caucus under a centrist banner, Ogawa said, in a bid to retain the bloc’s status as the largest opposition force in the House of Representatives.
“I am extremely sorry we were unable to achieve the one-party merger that was our primary objective,” Ogawa said. He likened the new structure to a unicycle becoming a bicycle, adding the parties will “pursue the summit we originally set our sights on.”
The alliance is to remain in existence for the time being with one lawmaker under its banner to wind up its affairs, Ogawa said.
The alliance was formed by lower house lawmakers from Komeito, a longtime former governing coalition partner, and the left-leaning CDPJ in an attempt to forge a united opposition to the conservative ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
