In April 2010, Masuzoe left the LDP and formed a splinter group called New Renaissance Party ("Shintō Kaikaku"). The party's platform included a call for decentralization, deregulation, and a halving of the number of Diet members. At the time, "The Economist"'s Banyan column dubbed Masuzoe "Japan's most popular politician". Both the NRP and Your Party, led by ex-LDP lawmaker Yoshimi Watanabe, were viewed at the time as potentially effective center-right counterweights to the Democratic Party of Japan, and possibly even successors to the LDP itself. Masuzoe's party nonetheless gained minimal traction. Four of its initial six Upper House members were voted out in the July 2010 election, leaving the party with only Masuzoe and Hiroyuki Arai representing it in the Upper House; the NRP was ultimately overshadowed by Your Party as a reformist element.