On 17 November 2012 Hashimoto and Shintaro Ishihara, leader of the Sunrise Party, announced a merger of their parties to create a "third force" to contest the general election of December 2012. The merged organization, which retained the name "Japan Restoration Party", was at that time Japan's only national political party based outside Tokyo. After the election it had 54 seats in the lower house and 9 members in the upper house.