Maintenance After All

Against original plan when it decided to join Party of Hope in the election of House of Representatives, Democratic Party decided to maintain itself after the election. President Seiji Maehara, who proposed the merge and dissolution of DP, is going to step down soon. Party members do not know where to go in unprecedented turmoil of the opposite parties.

In General Assembly of Lawmakers in Both Houses, DP decided to maintain itself including local organization. “Although we have once decided to join Party of Hope with cancellation of all the nomination of DP, it did not bring a result. I cannot say it was correct,” said Maehara in the meeting. While the lawmakers accused Maehara of his reckless decision, they approved the maintenance of the party and Maehara’s future resignation.

Maehara’s strategy caused disintegrated election campaign by Party of Hope, DP and Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. Their rejection each other allowed Shinzo Abe administration a sweeping victory without overwhelming public support. After the election, there left 46 lawmakers in House of Representatives and 18 independent lawmakers in House of Representatives.

Discussion inside DP is a struggle for money. The party keeps ¥10 billion of money, which had been subsidized by the government. DP, Party of Hope or CDPJ is in want of financial resource for their political activities. DP also maintains its local organization, which is always useful in elections to collect local votes. Party of Hope expected that DP would bring those resources in their merge. CDPJ hopes to get that, if DP lawmakers agree with their political causes. Some DP lawmakers argue that the party should return that money to the government and restart new party.

Party of Hope is now a Party of Disappointment. President Yuriko Koike takes distance from discussion for rebuilding the party, ignoring the selection process for post-election board members. With decline of Koike’s power, there is an argument to have co-President to deal with the matters of the Diet. Leaving her responsibility aside, Koike still wants to remain as the leader.

CDPJ looks like going its own way. “Making a party big through merging is obsolete. We do not give in reorganization of the parties,” told President Yukio Edano. He has negative impression on party alliance without policy agreement, which had kept on making after the establishment of Democratic Party of Japan in 1996. Edano declared that CDPJ would raise its original candidates in the election of House of Councillors in 2019. Bipartisan politics has been swept away in Japan.