In Japan, the ruling Democratic Party 's former leader Ichiro Ozawa on Wednesday launched a new party with 49 lawmakers. The powerful politician named the party as "putting people's life first." He vowed to revoke a tax hike bill supported by the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's cabinet. The ruling party and the major opposition parties voted for a bill at the lower house in late June to double the nation's sales tax rate by October 2015. But Ozawa and those democrats close to him rebelled in the vote. Ozawa submitted resignation along with 49 other lawmakers earlier in July in a move to oppose the tax hike bill.