TOKYO: The Japanese opposition Democratic Party for the People will split into members who will merge with the largest opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and those who will not, DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki said Tuesday.

After the split, Tamaki and others who will not merge with the CDPJ plan to form a new party to take over existing regional organizations of the DPFP across the country.

Tamaki announced the plan at a press conference after a meeting of senior members of his party on the proposed merger.

The CDPJ has proposed that the two parties dissolve themselves and then form a new party to realize their integration.

Following Tamaki’s announcement, the focus has moved to how many DPFP members will join the party emerging from the merger.

At the press conference, Tamaki said the DPFP and the CDPJ “failed to reach a consensus on basic policies” as a proposed meeting between Tamaki and his CDPJ counterpart, Yukio Edano, was not realized.

“If people with different philosophies and policies gather and force themselves into a new party, that would mean we’ve learned nothing from our past mistakes,” Tamaki said.

The DPFP and the CDPJ were created through a split of the now-defunct Democratic Party, the successor to the Democratic Party of Japan, which was in power between 2009 and 2012.

Separately at a meeting Tuesday, the CDPJ confirmed that the name of the new party to be formed through the CDPJ-DPFP merger will be decided by a vote as sought by the DPFP.

The CDPJ proposed the merger with the DPFP to create a force powerful enough to counter the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, president of the Liberal Democratic Party.

The DPFP has 62 lawmakers–40 in the House of Representatives and 22 in the House of Councillors. More than half of the lawmakers may join the new party.

JIJI Press