The reelection of Yorihisa Matsuno as chief of Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party) may help accelerate moves toward an eventual merger of what's left of the party with the Democratic Party of Japan in the latest wave of realignment of the opposition camp. Consolidating the splintered opposition camp would put it in a better position to challenge the dominance of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition. But the success of the consolidation would depend on whether voters view it as making sense from a policy perspective rather than a move that only serves the interests of the lawmakers.

The day after winning the lackluster party leadership race on Sunday, Matsuno met with DPJ chief Katsuya Okada and agreed that the two parties should form a joint parliamentary group by the end of this month. This move is deemed to be the first step toward a closer alliance and possible merger ahead of the Upper House election next year.

Although the two parties have been in talks for an alliance since September, the significance of the move has been discounted with the breakup of Ishin no To into followers of Osaka Mayor Hashimoto, who in August quit the party he co-founded just last year, and lawmakers aligned with the party leadership led by Matsuno. Though the party had 53 Diet members when it was created in September 2014, the breakup and the defection of Hashimoto loyalists have left the party with only 26 lawmakers and it now trails behind the Japanese Communist Party as the third-largest opposition force.