Apr 18 05:17 AM US/Eastern
TOKYO, April 18 (AP) - (Kyodo) — The mayor of Tokyo's Suginami Ward, Hiroshi Yamada, officially announced Sunday a plan to launch a new party with several other people who have experience serving as heads of local governments.
Yamada said he will head the new party, Nippon Soshinto, while former Yokohama Mayor Hiroshi Nakada and former Yamagata Gov. Hiroshi Saito have been named secretary general and policy chief, respectively.
Yamada said the party is aiming to field more than 10 candidates in this summer's House of Councillors election and win five to 10 seats in the upper house of parliament, although he did not refer to any specific plans about the selection of candidates.
Sources familiar with the move to create the party say Nakada and Saito will likely run in the proportional representation segment of the upcoming election. Yamada, an incumbent mayor, is not expected to run.
No current lawmaker is expected to join the new party.
The new party said in a declaration that the members involved in its launch "cannot stand the circumstances in which a chain of malicious situations is created by policy gaffes by the national government, although improvements have been made by reforms" led by local government heads.
"We are determined to stand up in order to create a new Japan," the declaration said, referring to the party's name that combines the words "Japan," "Creation" and "New."
Saitama Gov. Kiyoshi Ueda and 25 other former and current local government heads are on the list of supporters for the new party released Sunday.
The announcement follows the launch earlier this month of another new party, the Sunrise Party of Japan (Tachiagare Nippon), which was formed by a group of veteran politicians, including former trade minister Takeo Hiranuma and former Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano.
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