Maehara steps down as Nippon Ishin co-leader along with three others
In addition to Maehara, Nippon Ishin Secretary-General Ryohei Iwatani, General Affairs Chairman Tsukasa Abe, and Parliamentary Affairs Chief Joji Uruma will also resign, he said. The four are stepping down in order to take responsibility for Nippon Ishin's underwhelming performance in the July 20 Upper House election.
'When considering what Japan and Nippon Ishin must do to strengthen our position, I've concluded it's essential to renew public trust and reestablish a united party stance,' Maehara told party executives Tuesday afternoon.
In the Upper House contest, Nippon Ishin won seven seats and is the third-largest opposition party in that chamber with a total of 19 seats.
Nippon Ishin received only about 4.37 million proportional votes last month — down by almost 3.5 million from the roughly 7.84 million it received in the 2022 Upper House poll.
How Tuesday's resignations might impact the party's relationship with other opposition parties and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is unclear.
Nippon Ishin no Kai co-leader Seiji Maehara (third from right) attends the party's plenary meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday. |
JIJI
Maehara and party executives have insisted on not joining the LDP-led ruling coalition, at least not as long as LDP President Shigeru Ishiba remains prime minister.
But many Nippon Ishin members, especially those from the party's Kansai base, are more supportive of joining the coalition under certain conditions, such as if the LDP agrees to serious talks about designating Osaka as Japan's back-up capital city if a natural disaster were to strike Tokyo.
At an Aug. 1 meeting of Nippon Ishin parliamentarians, no opinions were expressed against joining an LDP coalition, Maehara said.
Asked Tuesday about joining a coalition, Maehara said Nippon Ishin will continue to push itself as a national party but did not view joining a ruling coalition as impossible.
However, on whether Nippon Ishin would work with the ruling coalition or other opposition parties on policy implementation, Maehara said that was for new party executives to decide.
The four Nippon Ishin leaders have conveyed their decision to step down to party chief Hirofumi Yoshimura, who is Osaka governor. In Nippon Ishin's unique leadership structure, a co-leader serves as the party's representative in parliament, while Yoshimura is in charge overall.
An election to name a replacement for Maehara is likely to take place on Friday.
Nippon Ishin is the second-largest opposition party in the Lower House, with 38 seats. But while it controls all 19 Lower House districts in Osaka Prefecture, it has always had difficulty building support outside the region. Six of the party's Upper House district seats are in the Kansai prefectures of Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto. It has only one non-Kansai Upper House district seat, in Kanagawa.
Staff writers Gabriele Ninivaggi and Himari Semans contributed to this report.
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