Nine Lower House lawmakers who announced last week that they were leaving the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, on Wednesday launched a new party called Kizuna.
The party, headed by Akira Uchiyama from Chiba Prefecture, filed their application with the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The nine DPJ defectors said they left the DPJ because of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's decision to hike the consumption tax and resume the Yamba dam project.
Uchiyama said the DPJ has broken key pledges in its 2009 election manifesto and is moving in a different direction to what voters expected of the DPJ. (Japan Today)
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