Unity of Japan Opposition CRA Broken Completely

Tokyo, Sept. 2 (Jiji Press)–The breakup of the Centrist Reform Alliance has become all but certain as the seven-month-old Japanese opposition party failed to forge unity. The party was launched in January, ahead of the Feb. 8 general election for the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, by then Lower House members of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito. The CRA aimed to merge with the two parties following the general election in a bid to create an opposition party capable of confronting the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, despite being branded by critics as an “electoral mutual-aid society” for the CDP and Komeito. The ambition failed following the CRA’s humiliating setback in the election, however. At Monday’s meeting, the leaders of the CRA, the CDP and Komeito confirmed the cancellation of the three-way integration plan. The CRA is expected to be split into two groups–one consisting of members hailing from the CDP and the other made up of those originally from Komeito. But conflicting strategies for political survival could lead to further fragmentation, potentially creating many weak opposition parties. Talks over Sandwiches “Our party will be split,” CRA leader Junya Ogawa said over the phone Sunday night, in response to a question about the party’s future from a member who failed to win a Lower House seat in the February election. The CRA’s unity almost collapsed after the CDP informed the CRA and Komeito at a meeting of their leaders Friday that it would not take part in the proposed merger. Komeito had been considering a merger with the CRA even without the CDP’s participation. However, Ogawa and CRA Secretary-General Takeshi Shina repeatedly urged Komeito not to go ahead with the idea, concerned about the balance of power within the CRA. Of the CRA’s 49 Lower House members, 28 are from Komeito. Ogawa and Shina were apparently concerned that if Komeito’s 21 members in the Senate, the upper Diet chamber formerly called the House of Councillors, join the CRA, the party would effectively be “taken over” by Komeito. On Thursday, Ogawa and Komeito Secretary-General Makoto Nishida met in the Diet while eating sandwiches. When Nishida told Ogawa, “It depends on the decision by the CRA leadership,” Ogawa, who had opposed a two-way merger with Komeito, found himself with few options left. On Sunday night, Ogawa met with CRA members hailing from the CDP, including former CDP head Kenta Izumi. Around the same time, CRA policy chief Mitsunari Okamoto and CRA adviser Tetsuo Saito, both former Komeito members, held a meeting with Nishida at Komeito’s headquarters. “The friendship and trust built among the 49 CRA lawmakers remain unchanged,” Ogawa said at a party meeting Monday, before the talks among the CRA, CDP and Komeito leaders later that day. However, a CRA executive from Komeito said, “We tried to work together, but it simply didn’t work.” Confusion Likely to Continue After Monday’s meeting among the three parties’ leaders in which the cancellation of their integration was confirmed, Ogawa told reporters that he hopes a group comprising CRA members hailing from the CDP and another made up of those from Komeito will form a new parliamentary group in the Lower House. But he avoided explicitly mentioning a split of the CRA. A party split would allow both sides to receive government subsidies for political parties. If the CRA breaks up into two, the 28 members originally from Komeito are expected to return to the party. Meanwhile, it remains uncertain whether the 21 CRA members from the CDP can remain united. On Monday, the CRA’s Hiroshi Ogushi, a close ally of Ogawa and former CDP member who lost his Lower House seat in the February election, said that he will leave the CRA and conduct political activities as an independent. Another veteran CRA member from the CDP is also planning to quit the CRA, saying, “It’s more promising to fight alone than remaining in the declining party.” Moves in the lead-up to unified local elections next spring and upcoming parliamentary elections are underway. Yukio Edano, the founder of the CDP and former chief cabinet secretary, has launched a new political organization. Liberal CRA lawmakers are said to be considering creating a new party or returning to the CDP, while conservative members are rumored to be approaching the Democratic Party for the People, an opposition party. Within the CRA, concern is growing that Takaichi, also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, may dissolve the Lower House before the LDP’s leadership poll next autumn for a snap general election. There is a possibility that centrist forces may not be able to unite and form a new group within this year, ahead of Jan. 1, 2027, the base date for calculating political subsidies. A CRA source deplored the current situation, saying, “The party was expected to counter the Takaichi administration, but it is instead breaking up into pieces.” At a news conference Monday, Akira Koike, head of the secretariat at the Japanese Communist Party, criticized the recent series of developments involving the CRA, saying that the situation represents “the collapse of the merger that was pursued without resolving major policy differences.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]