Komeito Chief Yamaguchi Reelected to 6th Term

September 19, 2018

Tokyo- Natsuo Yamaguchi was reelected on Wednesday to a sixth term as chief representative of Komeito, the junior partner in Japan's ruling bloc led by the Liberal Democratic Party.

The reelection took place without a vote, with no other candidate coming forward in a party leadership election.

"Komeito will put its full efforts in unified local elections and House of Councillors elections next year," Yamaguchi, 66, told a news conference.

He will be reappointed officially to a two-year term until September 2020 at a party convention in Tokyo on Sept. 30.

One focal point at the convention will be whether Secretary-General Yoshihisa Inoue, who has worked closely together with Yamaguchi in running the party, will retain his post or not.

Yamaguchi assumed the top post in Komeito in 2009 after the coalition fell from power following a setback in parliamentary elections. He has since won all the party leadership elections without contest. The coalition returned to power in 2012. Jiji Press