Photo/Illutration From right, Yoshihiko Noda, Yukio Edano, Kenta Izumi and Harumi Yoshida enter the leadership race of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan on Sept. 7. (Naoko Kawamura)

A four-way race kicked off Sept. 7 for leadership of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan as the main opposition party seeks to revamp itself as a viable alternative to the ruling coalition before the next Lower House election is held.

Kenta Izumi, who is seeking re-election as party president at an extraordinary party convention on Sept. 23, is under challenge from former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, former CDP President Yukio Edano and first-term Lower House member Harumi Yoshida.

At a joint news conference at the party headquarters on Sept. 7, Noda, 67, blasted the ruling Liberal Democratic Party over a recent political fund scandal and emphasized the need to promote political reform.

Noda, who currently serves as one of the party’s chief executive advisers, was prime minister between 2011 and 2012 as leader of the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan.

The party ended its three years in power when it was defeated by the LDP in a Lower House election in December 2012 that was called by Noda.

Edano, 60, told the news conference that true political regeneration will be impossible without strict punishment of LDP lawmakers who received unreported political funds.

Izumi, 50, pledged to tap the strengths of Japanese industry and Japan as a whole.

He was elected as party president in 2021 after Edano resigned as the CDP’s inaugural leader following the party’s loss in a Lower House election. His term expires at the end of September.

Yoshida, 52, said she wants to realize “life-size politics” unbound by conventions.

She filed her candidacy on Sept. 7, when official campaigning started, after securing endorsements from 20 party lawmakers through last-ditch talks with Kenji Eda, a potential candidate.

Eda, 68, former CDP executive deputy president, decided not to run, and some of his supporters provided their endorsements to Yoshida.

The LDP is holding its own leadership contest on Sept. 27 to select a successor to unpopular Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who announced last month he will step down.

The new prime minister may opt to swiftly dissolve the Lower House and call a snap election.

A veteran CDP lawmaker described the party’s leadership vote as the “semifinal match” before the Lower House election to choose its candidate for prime minister.

One of the key issues in the leadership race will be how to cooperate with other opposition parties in the Lower House election.

Izumi has said he is prepared to form a coalition government primarily with the Democratic Party for the People if the CDP wins, while Noda has backed a broader collaboration with other parties such as Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party). 

In addition to 136 CDP Diet members, party-endorsed candidates in national elections, 1,200-strong local assembly members and 110,000 party members and affiliated members will vote in the election.

If none of the four candidates wins a majority of votes, a run-off vote will be held between the two top finishers.

The candidates will participate in public debates and make street speeches at 11 locations nationwide during the 17-day campaigning period, the longest under the party’s election rules.

(This article was written by Nen Satomi and Kei Kobayashi.)

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