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To play devil's advocate for CRA: poll data show that most Japanese voters consider themselves centrists on the vast majority of issues, primarily valuing stability / competence on valence, pocketbook issues. "The LDP is going off the rails, we're offering continuity" isn't the worst campaign ever.

It's not for nothing that the biggest electoral threats to the LDP have always been forces led by former LDP figures! When the LDP is out of favour (which it still basically is, despite Takaichi juicing cabinet support polls), voters swing to "kinda like the LDP but without the scandals" offerings.

However, to dispense with the devil's advocate act: just because CRA *could* be making that appeal doesn't mean they *are*. For a start, throwing together a whole new party days before an election with no fully agreed policy platform doesn't exactly scream "we're the stable option".

So the CRA *could* appeal to a lot of voters, but on the other side of the balance: dubious branding, a hastily thrown together partnership, an unclear policy platform, and honestly nobody on those benches is a good enough political attack dog to make the public case that the LDP has lost the plot.

I'm also not sure that a former DPJ PM is the right figure to communicate a "stability & continuity" message