New party aims to win 10 seats in upper house race+

TOKYO, April 11 Kyodo -
Takeo Hiranuma, who heads the newly launched Sunrise Party of Japan, said
Sunday his party aims to win at least 10 seats in the House of Councillors
election to be held this summer.
''We cannot prevent the (ruling) Democratic Party of Japan from winning a
single-party majority unless we gain at least 10 seats,'' he told an NHK
program.
The former trade minister also said he will run 14 to 15 candidates, including
more than 10 in proportional representation constituencies, in the upper house
race.
Another founding member Hiroyuki Sonoda, former acting secretary general of the
Liberal Democratic Party, told a program on Fuji Television Network that the
new party will propose raising the consumption tax rate to 10 percent from the
current 5 percent.
''We will have to ask (people in Japan) as early as possible to shoulder the
additional 5 percent in stages,'' Sonoda said.
While a hike in the consumption tax is not indicated in the party's basic
policies, Sonoda suggested to reporters later that the plan would be included
in its manifesto for the upper house election.
==Kyodo