TOKYO Japan's two biggest organizations representing business merged Tuesday with the united aim of taking the nation on a new and independent path to growth.

"Japan is standing on a new stage in which we have to find a new path to growth," said Chairman of Toyota Motor Corp. Hiroshi Okuda, as he was elected to head the newly-created Japan Business Federation.

The country should no longer follow the lead of the United States and Europe as it had in the past, Okuda told a hall of over 700 business leaders at the organization's first general meeting.

The merged entity combines Japan's largest business lobby group, the Federation of Economic Organizations, or Keidanren, with the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations, or Nikkeiren, which served as a management union for labor rows, AFP reported.

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa described the group, dubbed the new Keidanren by some, as "a true commander of the Japanese economy." The federation has over 1,200 member companies and will also inherit employers' groups from Japan's 47 prefectures under Nikkeiren as well as foreign companies and individual members in Keidanren.

"In the 20th century our country tended to think too much about a uniform way of life, while harboring after materialistic affluence," said Okuda who formerly headed Nikkeiren.

The world's second largest economy must now achieve dynamism by accepting other values such as human resources, technology and know-how, he said.

The government hopes the influential body will make policy proposals from a wider economic viewpoint, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda.

"Business circles used to have the power of setting a grand direction to support japan's economic growth," Fukuda told a news conference earlier.

"But recently they need to give opinions on how the society and state should be by taking a large view of things," he said. "We would appreciate if they wrap up opinions of the business quarters." Keidanren was founded in 1946 to solve wide-ranging economic issues. Its chairman -- a post last served by Nippon Steel Corp.

head Takashi Imai -- has been called "prime minister of the business world" and wielded strong political influence.

Nikkeiren was set up in 1948 under the slogan that "employers, be righteous and strong" in order to counter frequent labor disputes amid inflation and food shortages at the time.

The merger of the two half-a-century old organizations will leave the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, or Keizai Doyukai, as Japan's only other major business group, given the marginalized role of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry for smaller companies.