Maehara to pick Yamao as DP secretary-general

September 3, 2017

TOKYO- New Democratic Party leader Seiji Maehara plans to appoint Shiori Yamao, former policy chief of the DP, as secretary-general of the main Japanese opposition party, it was learned Sunday.

The choice of Yamao, 43, a member of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, reflects the new party president's intention to demonstrate his resolve to reform the DP by selecting a young female member for the key party post, sources familiar with the matter said.

Maehara, a former foreign minister, will pick former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, 53, who lost to Maehara in Friday's DP leadership election, and Atsushi Oshima, 60, who served as campaign chief for Maehara the party race, as deputy presidents to strengthen the unity of the party, the sources said.

Oshima previously served as state minister for internal affairs and communications.

Maehara tentatively decided to name Takeshi Shina, 50, former parliamentary vice minister for internal affairs and communications, as head of policy affairs, former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yorihisa Matsuno, 56, as Diet affairs chief, and former Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Akira Nagatsuma, 57, who led Edano's campaign in the party poll, as election strategy head, the sources said. Edano, Oshima, Shina, Matsuno and Nagatsuma are all Lower House members.

Maehara hopes to launch his leadership team after obtaining approval for the appointments of the new executives at a meeting of DP lawmakers in both chambers of the Diet on Tuesday.

Yamao, a former public prosecutor, won a Lower House seat for the first time in the August 2009 election for the chamber, in which the Democratic Party of Japan, the core predecessor of the DP, scored a landslide victory to put an end to over 50 years of almost uninterrupted rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.

She has been elected to the Lower House twice.

Following the establishment of the DP in March 2016 through the merger of the DPJ and Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party), she served as DP policy chief under then party president Katsuya Okada.

Yamao supported Maehara in the latest DP leadership election, which was held after Renho offered to resign from the top post following the party's setback in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election on July 2 this year. Jiji Press