Former bus conductor and Finance Minister Tsutomu Hata Wednesday launched a new party he pledged would curtail the dominance of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party for the first time since 1955 and lead Japan into the 21st century.
"We have formed an energetic new party for the 21st century," said Hata at the party launch in the Japanese capital. "We pledge to turn a new page in history with courage and reason. Our party's name is Shinseito, which means "New Life Party."The 57-year-old Hata led a mutiny in the LDP last Friday and sided with the opposition in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence that dealt a crippling blow to Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and forced him to call a general election July 18.
Political commentators say Hata's betrayal of his old party threatens to dislodge it from a 38-year-long grip on political power in Japan, as individuals continue to hive off from the LDP.
Spurred by the LDP's broken promise of introducing political and electoral reform to root out corruption, Hata aims to form a core of centrist opposition groups that will coalesce to topple the ruling party.
"Our party was born to blast in a new wind, a new voice and a new system," said Hata who comes from a political family close to the center of power and who benefitted from patronage to the system he is seeking to kill.
The schism in the LDP is the most severe since the party was established in 1955 with the merger of the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party during the Cold War.
Hata said Shinseito will do all it can to clean up corrupt politics, which has disillusioned voters, and revamp the political system seen as the root cause of the corruption.
A graduate of Tokyo's Seijo University, Hata worked as a bus conductor and tour planner for 10 years before launching a political career on the death of his father, Bushiro, a member of the Diet, Japan's parliament.
As farm minister in 1987, Hata's outspokeness drew public attention when he told a group of U.S. congressional leaders Japan could not increase consumption of American beef because "Japanese have longer intestines than Americans."
On Tuesday, Hata and 43 members of the lower and upper houses in the Diet split from the LDP.
"We are appealing to voters so that we can become the core that would grab power," Hata said.
The move followed a similar decision Monday by 10 former members of the House of Representa-tives who started another new political party under the name of "Sakigake" or "Harbinger."