Photo/Illutration Keiichi Ishii announces his resignation as leader of Komeito on Oct. 31. (Yuta Ogi)

Komeito leader Keiichi Ishii resigned on Oct. 31, four days after the junior coalition partner lost eight seats in the Lower House election and he himself was ousted from the Diet.

“The extremely poor showing at the polls is my responsibility as the party’s chief representative,” Ishii, who took up the top post on Sept. 28, told a meeting of Komeito’s Central Secretariat.

In explaining the reason for his resignation, Ishii, 66, said the party leader must be responsible for expressing the party’s thinking through Diet debates.

Komeito’s losses in the election included four single-seat constituencies in Osaka Prefecture, the party’s traditional stronghold.

For the first time, Komeito candidates in six districts in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures faced direct challenges from Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), an opposition party whose power base is the Kansai region.

Komeito now holds 24 seats in the 465-seat lower chamber.

Ishii, who had won his Lower House seat 10 times in the proportional representation portion, ran in the Saitama No. 14 district for the first time, but lost to an opposition candidate.

He was not listed on the party’s proportional representation roster, which eliminated a second chance for him to remain in the Diet.

Komeito Secretary-General Makoto Nishida will stay on in the party’s No. 2 post.

The party will pick its new leader at an extraordinary convention on Nov. 9.

Land minister Tetsuo Saito and Mitsunari Okamoto, the party’s policy affairs chief, have been floated as possible candidates.

According to Komeito’s constitution, when the chief representative resigns midway through his or her tenure, the Central Secretariat, which consists of party executives, recommends a successor for endorsement at a party convention.

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