All the power of the anti-LDP/New Komeito camp has to be concentrated to bring about a government run by the opposition parties that focuses on peace, independence and the closing of the gap between the haves and have-nots. To make this possible, the leaders of the Democratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party and the The People's New Party must get together and wipe away their mutual mistrust. The DPJ will have to act like grown-ups if it wants to consolidate this power base.

At the end of 2006, a political reporter I know interviewed a high-ranking official of the ruling coalition. "The struggle to unite the opposition parties has fallen apart," the official triumphantly told the reporter. "The mutual mistrust among the parties is serious. The opposition is going to be all over the place in the regular Diet session this spring, and the parties will bring each other down. The DPJ is rife with divisions, and Ozawa's leadership is starting to wane. There won't be any unity among the opposition parties even for the House of Councillors election, and Abe's coalition of Liberal Democrats and New Komeito won't lose."
The interview with the New Komeito official focused on the prospects for the upcoming regular Diet session and the upper house election. When the reporter steered the interview toward the opposition's failure to unify, he said the party official could barely suppress his delight.
At the end of the 2006 extraordinary Diet session, the opposition parties were in disarray. If the situation does not improve, there is a strong possibility that the 2007 regular session will be controlled by the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito. The same is true of the nationwide local elections: If the opposition parties can't come together, the LDP/New Komeito coalition very well could leave them in the dust. And in the upper house election, they could waste an opportunity for a big reversal. The situation does not call for optimism.
The opposition parties pull each other down, creating the worst scenario for Japanese politics. Without realizing political change, there is no chance for Japan's rebirth and its release from the tyrannical dictatorship of an LDP/New Komeito coalition that has served as an agent for the Bush administration.
The leaders of these opposition parties need to leave the past behind and make the future their top priority, promoting cooperation in the Diet session, the local elections and the upper house elections this summer.
The failure of the opposition to unite during the fall 2006 extraordinary Diet session represents a tactical defeat. Stringing together tactical and strategic defeats is sheer folly. An excellent strategist has to learn from a defeat in order to devise a plan for victory.
The responsibility for recreating a united opposition primarily lands on the Democrats. It is now up to the DPJ to make the necessary arrangements.

END