Photo/Illutration Natsuo Yamaguchi speaks at his Sept. 13 news conference. (Koichi Ueda)

Natsuo Yamaguchi is not ready to hand over the helm of junior coalition partner Komeito just yet.

Yamaguchi, 70, announced on Sept. 13 that he would be running in the party leadership election that will officially begin on Sept. 15.

With no other candidate expected to run, Yamaguchi will win an unprecedented eighth term as party leader.

“As the key component for party unity and through the experience I have accumulated as Komeito head until now, I will funnel those factors into party leadership in order to fulfill my role,” Yamaguchi said at his Sept. 13 news conference.

A Komeito party convention is scheduled for Sept. 25, and Yamaguchi is expected to be elected by acclamation.

Soka Gakkai, the lay Buddhist organization that backs Komeito, apparently decided that now was not the best time for a change at the top of the party.

Komeito received about 6.18 million votes in the proportional representation constituency of the July Upper House election, well below its initial goal of 8 million.

But with unified local assembly elections scheduled for next spring, officials believed that Yamaguchi’s name recognition was needed to help the many local politicians endorsed by Komeito.

A lawyer, Yamaguchi won his first Diet seat in the 1990 Lower House election and served two terms.

But when he failed to hold that seat on his third try, Yamaguchi converted to the Upper House and is now in his fourth term in that Diet chamber.

He succeeded Akihiro Ota as party leader in 2009 when Ota lost his Lower House seat.

In April, Yamaguchi hinted that he felt Keiichi Ishii, 64, the party secretary-general, was a prime candidate to eventually succeed him as Komeito head.

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