Japan’s main opposition begins two-horse leadership race after election defeat
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Centrist Reform Alliance co-leaders Tetsuo Saito (right) and Yoshihiko Noda speaking to the media at a ballot counting centre in Tokyo, Japan, on Feb 8.
PHOTO: EPA
TOKYO – Japan’s main opposition party, the Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA), on Feb 12 officially began a brief two-horse race to select its new leader, as the recently established party seeks to rebuild after a crushing defeat in the latest general election.
The new party head is set to be chosen on Feb 13 in the race that is being contested by Mr Junya Ogawa, a former secretary-general of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), and Mr Takeshi Shina, the CDPJ’s former acting policy chief.
The CRA was established in January. The alliance united House of Representatives members of the CDPJ and the Komeito party to achieve a centrist realignment amid what they view as a rightward shift under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Instead, the CRA faced defeat, with its 167 seats before official campaigning falling to 49 after the Feb 15 election.
Speaking at an event to launch a campaign for the party’s leadership, Mr Shina said the party “must move forward raising a centrist banner for the sake of democracy and the next generation”.
The CRA’s loss has made it the smallest main opposition party in post-war Japan’s history.
In his campaign, Mr Ogawa referred to cost-of-living pressures on inflation-hit households, saying that the party must “rebuild livelihoods” and “do something about the pervasive uncertainty towards the future spreading in society”.
The race will be won by the candidate with the most votes from the party’s 49 House of Representatives lawmakers, with no run-off round.
The new leader’s term will run until the end of March 2027.
The race did not require lawmakers to receive the backing of their colleagues to run as a candidate for the party’s leadership. No lawmakers from the Komeito side came forward to contest the race.
With the founding parties’ lawmakers in the House of Councillors yet to merge with their Lower House colleagues into the CRA, in the wake of the election defeat, both candidates indicated to reporters that they do not plan to rush a merger.
The party leadership contest comes after CRA co-leaders Yoshihiko Noda and Tetsuo Saito, the respective former heads of the CDPJ and Komeito, said on Feb 9 that they would step down to take responsibility for the election loss.
Komeito, a self-styled pacifist party, ended its 26-year coalition with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in October 2025, shortly after Ms Takaichi became its leader. KYODO NEWS
