Tokyo, 30 November, /AJMEDIA/
Japan’s main opposition will choose its new leader in a party vote on Tuesday with the possibility of a runoff as there is no clear favorite among four candidates throwing their hats in the ring after it suffered a humiliating election loss last month.
Among lawmakers of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, a pre-election survey showed its policy chief Kenta Izumi, 47, in the lead, while support was split among the three other candidates.
The three are Junya Ogawa, 50, a former parliamentary vice minister for internal affairs and communications, Chinami Nishimura, 54, a former senior vice minister of health, labor and welfare, and Seiji Osaka, 62, a former special adviser to the prime minister.
CDPJ Diet members, totaling 140, and six candidates already endorsed by the party to run in the House of Councillors election next summer will cast ballots at an extraordinary party meeting in the afternoon, while local assembly and rank-and-file members have already voted online or by mail.
The Diet members are given 280 points in total, the six candidates have six points, and local assembly members and rank-and-file members both hold 143 points, respectively. If no candidate wins a majority of the total 572 points, a runoff will be held between the top two contenders.
The winner in the CDPJ election will be tasked with reforming the party ahead of next summer’s upper house election.
The election was called and campaigning began on Nov. 19 as Yukio Edano announced his resignation as CDPJ leader after the party failed to make expected inroads in the Oct. 31 House of Representatives election, instead losing 14 seats that it held before the vote to fall to a 96-seat total.
The poor result raised questions about Edano’s leadership and strategy of working with other opposition parties, including the Japanese Communist Party, in the lower house election to field single opposition candidates in hopes of better challenging candidates backed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling coalition.
The LDP secured 261 seats in the last election, retaining a comfortable majority to effectively control all standing committees and steer the legislative process.
Komeito, the LDP’s junior coalition partner, went from 29 to 32 seats.
All four candidates have suggested the alliance with other opposition forces should be maintained ahead of the upper house election next summer and it was not a mistake to align with the Japanese Communist Party despite a big difference in diplomatic stance, but also suggested changes should be made to how they cooperate.
