Ogawa chosen as Japan’s main opposition leader after election defeat

TOKYO – Japan’s main opposition force, the Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA), elected 54-year-old Junya Ogawa as its new head on Feb 13, as the newly created party embarks on a revamp after a heavy loss in the recent general election.

Mr Ogawa, former secretary general of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), defeated Mr Takeshi Shina, 59, former acting chief policymaker of the party, in a two-horse race, winning the support of 27 of the CRA’s 49 lawmakers.

“By strengthening the party’s internal structure and deepening cooperation with other forces, I will do my best to produce concrete results that benefit the public,” Mr Ogawa told a press conference in Tokyo after the leadership election.

The short, two-day contest came ahead of a special parliamentary session next week at which Ms Sanae Takaichi is expected to be re-elected prime minister following her ruling coalition’s landslide victory in Feb 15’s House of Representatives election.

The CRA was formed in January by lower house members from the CDPJ and the Komeito party just weeks ahead of the snap election, in which Ms Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party won an overwhelming majority in the powerful 465-member chamber.

But the CRA lost more than two-thirds of its 167 seats, prompting its co-leaders Yoshihiko Noda, 68, and Mr Tetsuo Saito, 74, the former heads of the CDPJ and Komeito, respectively, to resign to take responsibility.

The leadership tenure of Mr Ogawa, an eighth-term lower house lawmaker from a constituency in the western prefecture of Kagawa, will run until the end of March 2027.

While 28 of the newly elected CRA members come from the Komeito side, none joined the leadership race. Komeito, which is backed by Japan’s biggest lay Buddhist organisation Soka Gakkai, ended its 26-year alliance with the LDP in October.

The new leader will face the challenge of easing internal frictions caused by the perceived preferential treatment of candidates from Komeito in the selection process, which left the CDPJ side with just 21 seats after losing over 100 seats.

Komeito succeeded in electing all the candidates it fielded as it was given priority in the CRA’s proportional representation list in return for withdrawing from the 289 single-member constituencies, including one that had been occupied by Mr Saito.

Mr Ogawa said he will focus on maintaining “harmony” within the party as he carefully considers the new leadership lineup over the weekend.

The CRA’s poor showing at the election has made it the smallest main opposition party in postwar Japanese history, lacking the minimum requirement to submit budget-related Bills or a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet on its own.

Many CRA heavyweights who had long served as the backbone of the CDPJ, including former chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano, former foreign minister Katsuya Okada and former finance minister Jun Azumi, lost their seats in the latest election.

Mr Ogawa said his party will promote a measured generational change and rejuvenation, while maintaining communication with seasoned senior lawmakers such as Mr Noda, who was prime minister for about 16 months from September 2011 under the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan. KYODO NEWS