Japan's 2 largest opposition parties confirm to cooperate

The heads of Japan's two largest opposition parties confirmed on Monday to cooperate to challenge the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in future elections, local media reported.

Katsuya Okada, the president of Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and Yorihisa Matsuno, head of the Japan Innovation Party told reporters that they have reached an agreement to form a framework after the current Diet session to closely discuss elections and politics after meeting.

Their decision came after the departure from Innovation Party of its co-founder and Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto. The latter left the party last Thursday and planned to launch a new party by the end of October with Osaka governor Ichiro Matsui, aiming to secure over 20 lawmakers as members, sources close to the matter said.

The DPJ has 72 members in the lower house and 58 members in the upper house of parliament, while the Japan Innovation Party has 40 and 11 separately.

The possible merger is aimed at building a group large enough to mount a credible challenge to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's dominant ruling party in the upper house election next summer. However, whether it can be successfully engineered remains to be seen, given reservations in both opposition parties, said Japan's Kyodo News Agency.