Japan's CRA, CDP, Komeito Confirm Merger Cancellation

Tokyo, Aug. 31 (Jiji Press)--The leaders from the Centrist Reform Alliance, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito confirmed at a meeting Monday that the three opposition parties will not merge.

"In order to expand centrist forces and realize a change of government, we want to pursue a new form," CRA leader Junya Ogawa told reporters after his meeting with CDP head Shunichi Mizuoka and Komeito chief Toshiko Takeya.

Ogawa apparently had in mind the idea of breaking up his party into two--one with former members of the CDP and the other with former Komeito members--and having the two forces create a new group in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament.

The CRA was established in January by then Lower House members of the CDP and Komeito. It was expected to be joined by CDP and Komeito members from the Senate, recently renamed from the House of Councillors, as well as local assembly members of the two parties.

But after the CRA suffered a crushing defeat in the Lower House election in February, the three-way merger plan met with cautious and opposing views.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]