2 fledgling Japanese parties unite ahead of vote

TOKYO — Outspoken leaders from Japan’s two biggest cities formed a national political party Saturday, seeking to become “a third force” to lure undecided voters and challenge the country’s two biggest parties.

Nationalist Shintaro Ishihara, who resigned as Tokyo governor to create his own party last week, said he is scrapping his 4-day-old group to join the Japan Restoration Party, formed in September by the young and brash mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto.

The announcement comes the day after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda dissolved the lower house of the parliament, paving the way for elections next month. His ruling party, the Democratic Party of Japan, is expected to give way to a weak coalition government divided over how to tackle Japan’s myriad problems, which include getting a stagnant economy going again and reconstruction after the crippling March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Elections are set for Dec. 16, with official campaigning starting Dec. 4. If Noda’s centrist party loses, the economically sputtering country will get its seventh prime minister in 6 1/2 years.

Japan is going through a political transition, with a merrygo-round of prime ministers and a mushrooming of fringe parties to challenge the long-dominant Liberal Democrats’ return.

“This country is going to fall apart if we don’t act now,” Ishihara said at Saturday’s party convention held in Osaka, announcing the merger of his party and Hashimoto’s. “I’ve decided to ignore small differences to join hands on common ground. This will be my last service for the country.”

Ishihara apparently made concessions to Hashimoto’s policy supporting the phase-out of nuclear energy and participating in the U.S.-led trans-Pacific trade block. The timing of the election could pre-empt moves by more-conservative challengers to build enough electoral support.

Ishihara, 80, now heads the Japan Restoration Party, replacing Hashimoto, who now serves in the No. 2 post. Hashimoto, 43, has said he will remain mayor of Japan’s second-largest city and not run in the election. On Saturday, he announced backing 47 candidates to run in the polls.

The Democratic Party of Japan, in power for three years, has grown unpopular largely because of its handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis and its plans to double the sales tax.

Noda’s most likely successor is Liberal Democrats head and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He resigned as Japan’s leader in 2007 after a year in office because of a stomach ailment.

Polls indicate that the conservative, business-friendly Liberal Democrats will win the most seats in the 480-seat lower house but will fall far short of a majority. That would force it to cobble together a coalition of parties with differing policies and priorities. Many of the newly formed small groups are formed by those who left Noda’s party.

Noda, who visited schools in Tokyo, called the party merger a “no-principle coalition” that neglected policies.