exist in the House of Councillors.

In January 2018, the DP and the Kibo no To agreed to form a joint parliamentary group in both houses of the Diet, although days later the negotiations broke down. On 9 April 2018, it was announced that talks were ongoing to merge the two parties into a new opposition force. On 24 April 2018, at a joint press conference the leadership of the DP and the Kibo no To announced that both parties had agreed to merge in May 2018 as the National Democratic