Some in CRA, CDP Call for Pushing Back Merger with Komeito

Tokyo, Aug. 26 (Jiji Press)--Some members of the Centrist Reform Alliance and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan are calling for moving back the deadline for concluding talks on the integration of the two Japanese opposition parties and Komeito, also an opposition force.

Meanwhile, some Komeito lawmakers insist that the CRA's House of Representatives members who hail from Komeito should leave the CRA and return to their original party if the talks on the three-way integration fail to forge an agreement.

The deadline for wrapping up the merger negotiations has effectively been set at the end of this month.

The CRA was launched in January, ahead of the Feb. 8 general election for the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, by then Lower House members of the CDP and Komeito. The CRA suffered a crushing defeat in the general election.

At a general meeting of its lawmakers Tuesday, the CDP confirmed a plan to decide its stance on the proposed integration after holding an intraparty meeting Friday.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]