TOKYO, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's newly-formed party will look to scrap a planned sales tax hike instituted by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-led (LDP) bloc and seek further debate on the contentious issue of amending Japan's pacifist constitution, local media said Wednesday.
Citing informed sources, Koike's Party of Hope will also look to phase out nuclear power by 2030, Kyodo News said.
The new party is looking to unveil its election platform on Friday before official campaigning for the Oct. 22 election starts next week.
The party's election policies unveiled so far have been to distinguish it from the LDP, which holds some similar conservative views, such as those regarding the constitution.
Koike's party will "advance constitutional discussion, including on Article 9," which requires Japan to renounce war and the maintenance of "war potential," party sources were quoted as saying.
The LDP has been more assertive about its plans to make the first-ever contentious amendments to the constitution, such as specifically referencing the status of the Self-Defense Forces.
Party insiders also said it will pledge to reduce the number of lawmakers in parliament as well as cut their salaries to depart from "politics shackled by vested interests."
A day earlier, the fledgling party unveiled 191 candidates who will run in single-seat electoral districts in the 465-seat lower house.
Many of the candidates belonged to the main opposition Democratic Party which has effectively merged with the Party of Hope, although Democrats not upholding the party's views on the constitution or security were screened out of the process.
Due to this, six former members of the effectively disbanded Democratic Party submitted to the internal affairs ministry on Tuesday an application to officially form a new political party.
Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano will act as head of the party, which is called the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ).
Edano had previously said he was launching a new party, in part, to cater to those not allowed to run on the Party of Hope's ticket due to ideological differences and to ensure that Democrats upholding the party's founding principles could still be represented in the lower house election.
On Wednesday, the CDPJ said it plans to field more than 50 candidates in the lower house election, with some political heavyweights, such as former Prime Minister Naoto Kan and former Democratic Party leader Banri Kaieda, being fielded as candidates in 16 of Tokyo's 25 single-seat districts.
Koike, for her part, had previously said she would be fielding at least 233 candidates in the general election, in a bid to wrestle power away from the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the lower house.
She also denied that she herself might run in the upcoming election.
"I'm 100 percent not running in the election," she told reporters.
Koike, a seasoned politician having served as a lower house member between 1993 and 2016, resigned from national politics to run in the gubernatorial election, which she won.
She previously held the defense minister portfolio in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but resigned in August 2007 after just 54 days in office.
