Two Japanese opposition parties merge ahead of elections

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, September 25, 2003

Two Japanese opposition parties merge ahead of elections

Two Japanese opposition parties Wednesday agreed to merge in a bid to compete with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the lower house election in November.

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Two Japanese opposition parties Wednesday agreed to merge in a bid to compete with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the lower house election in November.

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the Liberal Party (LP) are scheduled to hold a merge convention on Oct. 5. The new party will still be called the Democratic Party of Japan.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has suggested he would dissolve the House of Representatives in October and hold general elections in November.

The DPJ, the largest opposition party in Japan, and the LP holda combined 136 seats in the 480-member lower house and 66 in the 247-member House of Councilors.

But the campaign to challenge the LDP is getting harder as approval rate for Koizumi's cabinet is on the rise following Saturday's LDP presidential election and cabinet reshuffle Monday.

In a survey released by Nihon Keizai Shimbun Wednesday, cabinet support rate rose to 65 percent, up 20 percentage points from August and higher than the 61 percent in October, 2002, after a summit meeting between Koizumi and leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Il.

The Yomiuri Shimbun put the latest rate at 63.4 percent, up nearly six percentage points from August, and the rate in the Mainichi Shimbun rose 11 points to 65 percent.

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