Tokyo - The leader of Japan's main opposition party announced yesterday the dissolution of the three-year-old party. In a boost for the beleaguered Prime Minister, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto, the New Frontier Party (NFP) leader, Mr Ichiro Ozawa, said the formal disbandment of the party would take place today at a meeting of NFP parliamentarians.
NFP sources said Mr Ozawa and 100 parliamentarians planned to form a new party in early January. Other NFP parliamentarians would also band together to form several new parties. The NFP has 47 members in the 252-seat House of Councillors, or upper house, and 126 members in the more powerful 500-seat House of Representatives.
The NFP's break-up gives Mr Hashimoto, whose popularity is at a record low because of Japan's ailing economy, the parliamentary leeway to push through measures to restore the country's financial reputation. His Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has a bare four-seat majority in the lower house and 117 seats in the upper house, where it rules with the help of smaller parties.