The Democratic Party of Japan and Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party) have chosen a new name for the main opposition force that will emerge with their merger later this month — supposedly to give their union a fresh restart. Whether the new Minshin To party — tentatively called the Democratic Innovation Party in English — can regain enough confidence of voters as a viable force to compete with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's dominant ruling coalition is far from clear. That the two parties had to sound out popular opinion in separate surveys to pick up the new name seems indicative of a lack of confidence in their own identity and future.

The way the DPJ and Ishin are merging in itself is a product of compromise. Technically, the DPJ will be absorbing Ishin, now reduced to the third-largest opposition party after the Japanese Communist Party following the departure of its founder, former Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, and his loyalists last fall. However, DPJ leaders agreed to have a new name for the merged force — reportedly in deference to the demands of Ishin members that their union should look like a merger of equals, even though the DPJ dwarfs Ishin in terms of the number of Diet members. There were also calls within the DPJ itself that the party should change its name to shed the negative image associated with its failures while it was in power from 2009 to 2012.

Many DPJ members, along with its key organized supporter, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), are said to have insisted that the new name should retain key elements of the current name. Ishin leaders called for an entirely new name to give the merged party a fresh look. They eventually held separate surveys to sound out popular preferences among a shortlist of candidates — Rikken Minshu To (which can be translated as Constitutional Democratic Party) proposed by the DPJ, and Minshin To presented by Ishin. The result was that in both surveys, Minshin To was the more favored choice of the respondents. The outcome — which the leaders of both parties decided to follow — may suggest that the negative popular image of the DPJ was more serious than many of its members had thought.