TOKYO – The leaders of the Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA), the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) and Komeito decided at a meeting in parliament on Monday that the three Japanese opposition parties will not merge, local media reported.

According to Kyodo News, CRA leader Junya Ogawa said that he hopes to find "a new framework" to allow members to "restart" efforts to achieve a change of government.

CDPJ leader Shunichi Mizuoka said the party would resume discussions on how to counter the administration led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Komeito head Toshiko Takeya said the party had previously sought to have its upper house lawmakers join the CRA and had prepared to align its local organizations following the merger. However, given the CDPJ's decision not to proceed with the merger, Komeito would not join the alliance on its own.

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The CRA was established in January by the lower house lawmakers from the CDPJ and Komeito as a counterweight to the conservative-leaning Takaichi administration.

In the subsequent lower house election in February, however, the alliance won only 49 seats, far short of expectations. After the defeat, caution and opposition has grown among CDPJ and Komeito upper house members and local party organizations that had originally planned to join the CRA, leading to the ultimate cancellation of the three-party merger plan.

Koji Nakakita, professor at Japan's Chuo University, said that although the three-party merger did not come to fruition, it is just one stage in the long-term process of realignment among Japan's opposition parties. He added that the parties could continue cooperating and pursue realignment in other forms going forward.