Japan's powerbroker Ozawa leaves ruling party with 51 members

The Democratic Party of Japan's powerbroker and former leader Ichiro Ozawa submitted resignation letter on Monday along with 51 party members of the ruling party in a move to oppose a sales tax hike bill. The ruling party and the major opposition parties voted on a bill in late June to double the nation's sales tax rate by October 2015. But Ozawa and those democrats close to him rebelled in the vote. The powerful politician had been reportedly encouraging party members close to him to join him in forming a new party. Monday's version of The Daily Yomiuri, a popular paper, reported that Ozawa aimed to seize power after the next lower house election by building a loose coalition with other small and regional political parties, according to the Chinese news agency (Xinhua). Though Ozawa's move will deal a blow to the DPJ and to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, but it is still able to hold a majority at the powerful lower house after the group quit. This is not the first time that Ozawa, dubbed "the destroyer", has torn apart a ruling party. In 1993, he left the Liberal Democratic Party to form his own party.