Ex-PM Noda elected Japan main opposition leader, vows to win power
TOKYO, Sept. 23 Kyodo - Former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda vowed to take Japan's main opposition party to government after winning its leadership election Monday, as it gears up for a possible snap election likely to be called by the winner of the ruling party's presidential contest later this week.
Noda, 67, campaigned to shift the left-leaning Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan toward the center, beating former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, a 60-year-old liberal lawmaker and the party's founder, in a runoff. He netted 232 points to Edano's 180 in the vote.
"We will break the majority held by the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito party. To that aim, we will maximize the number of opposition seats," the ex-prime minister under the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan from 2011 to 2012 said in a press conference after his victory.
With a lower house election "unmistakably" on the way, Noda said he would appoint party executives by Tuesday morning. While declining to offer specifics on his picks, the veteran lawmaker said it is "hugely important that we put together a team that offers a sense of renewal" to complement his familiarity with the electorate.
The race had been widely expected to go to a runoff between the two veteran lawmakers as the party seeks to present an experienced alternative to the next leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, who will be selected Friday.
The CDPJ contest's four candidates also included incumbent leader Kenta Izumi and Harumi Yoshida, a first-term House of Representatives lawmaker and the only woman in the race. Both were eliminated after coming third and fourth, respectively, in the first round.
In recent elections, the CDPJ has faced difficulties attracting voters, in part due to its alignment with the Japanese Communist Party, which advocates radical policies like abolishing the Self-Defense Forces and the imperial system.
Noda, a figure on the party's right who plans to target unaffiliated voters in a bid at power, said he will "hold earnest talks with all (opposition) parties" once his team is established.
What kind of cooperation the party takes with other opposition groups in the coming election is expected to be decisive in whether Noda can gain ground against whoever succeeds Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as LDP chief, analysts said.
Kishida's replacement is seen as likely to dissolve the lower house for a general election by the end of the year, as the party aims to put distance between it and a slush funds scandal revealed late last year.
The LDP, which has held power almost without interruption since 1955, has faced intense scrutiny after some of its factions, including one formerly led by Kishida, failed to report portions of their income from fundraising parties and created slush funds.
As a result, Noda and the other CDPJ candidates have pledged to clean up politics, including tackling "hereditary politics" in Japan, taking aim at some candidates in the ruling party's race who are the sons of former lawmakers.
But in his move to occupy the center ground, Noda risks criticism that his policy pitch is indistinguishable from the LDP. At the press conference after his victory, he pointed to his backing of progressive policies, such as separate surnames for married couples and his plans to reform the transparency of political spending, as differences.
In the first round, the four competed for 740 points from a mix of party lawmakers, endorsed election candidates and rank-and-file members. Noda led with 267 points, followed by Edano with 206, while Izumi and Yoshida received 143 and 122 points, respectively.
The vote marked the end of Izumi's nearly three-year tenure as leader. His time was marked by failure to expand party support, underlined by the CDPJ-backed candidate for the July Tokyo gubernatorial race finishing third behind a relatively unknown, social media-savvy former mayor.
During the leadership race, the four candidates were divided on various policy issues, including the consumption tax. Noda and Edano declined to clarify if they would cut the rate from the current 10 percent, while Izumi and Yoshida called for reducing the tax on food products.
As prime minister, Noda made a politically sensitive decision to raise the consumption tax by 5 percentage points from 5 percent. The unpopularity of this policy contributed to the DPJ's heavy defeat in the 2012 election, which brought the LDP back to power under the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
==Kyodo
