DP, Party of Hope agree to form parliamentary group

January 16, 2018

Tokyo- Senior officials from the Democratic Party and the Party of Hope, both Japanese opposition parties, reached a formal agreement Monday to form a joint parliamentary group at both chambers of parliament.

The two parties aim to complete internal procedures to approve the agreement within this week ahead of the start of an ordinary parliamentary session on Jan. 22.

The DP and the Party of Hope together have 65 lawmakers in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, and 45 lawmakers in the House of Councillors, the upper chamber.

The alliance of the two parties will create a group that is bigger than the current biggest opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan with 54 Lower House members and six Upper House members.

But there is strong opposition within both the DP and the Party of Hope to the alliance.

Shigefumi Matsuzawa, head of the Party of Hope's Upper House lawmakers, said the agreement with the DP is never acceptable. Party of Hope leader Yuichiro Tamaki mentioned the possibility of splitting the party to address the matter.

Toshio Ogawa, head of the DP's Upper House lawmakers, objected to the consensus document on basic policies that the two parties released after the agreement was reached.

The DP was once the biggest opposition party. But its Lower House lawmakers were largely split into the Party of Hope and the CDPJ before last October's general election. The current DP basically consists of Upper House members.

Monday's agreement was reached at a meeting of secretaries-general and parliamentary affairs chiefs from the DP and the Party of Hope.

In the consensus document, the parties said they aim to make necessary revisions to the national security laws, including the deletion of sections that critics say are unconstitutional.

The laws, which entered into force in 2016, authorize the country to exercise its right to collective self-defense. The DP regards parts of the laws as unconstitutional, while the Party of Hope fully tolerates them.

The two parties overcame the differences by including the term "unconstitutional" into the document while making it unclear whether they think the laws are unconstitutional.

"We'll position ourselves in a way that we can firmly confront the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe," DP Secretary-General Teruhiko Mashiko told reporters after the meeting.

Motohisa Furukawa, Mashiko's counterpart at the Party of Hope, said, "This is the first step for opposition parties sharing views on issues such as work-style reforms to create a major combined force."

On proposed revisions to the country's constitution, the consensus document called for discussions from the perspective of upholding its three key principles of popular sovereignty, pacifism and respect for fundamental human rights. Jiji Press