Rocky start seen for new DP leader Maehara

September 2, 2017

TOKYO- The Democratic Party faces a critical challenge of reviving the largest Japanese opposition party under its new head, Seiji Maehara, but the road ahead him is very tough after as many as eight DP lawmakers cast invalid votes in Friday's leadership election for the party.

Pointing to the possibility of the eight members leaving the DP on the heels of the recent exodus of many party lawmakers, some say that the situation in the party is worse than when Renho, Maehara's predecessor, was elected DP leader a year ago.

Upon being elected new DP president, Maehara told party colleagues, "After learning the voting results, I now feel that I'm getting off to a very tough start," in an apparent reference to the eight invalid votes.

The DP leadership election was a one-on-one contest between Maehara, who served as foreign minister when the Democratic Party of Japan, the core predecessor of the DP, was in power, and Yukio Edano, former chief cabinet secretary.

But not a few DP lawmakers were cool to the election, with one young member saying that Maehara and Edano are "the same old faces." An official who held a senior post under the Renho-led DP executive team said, "Public support for the DP will not rise regardless of whether Maehara or Edano would have won the race."

Seven of the eight invalid votes were blank, while a name other than those of the two candidates was written on the other voting slip, according a source familiar with the matter.

In the DP, which was created in March 2016 through the merger of the DPJ and Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party), there is growing interest in a new political party planned to be set up by lawmakers, including Masaru Wakasa, who is close to popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.

DP lawmakers have recently left the largest opposition party one after another, apparently aiming to join the envisaged party. Wakasa, a member of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, is an independent, after leaving the ruling Liberal Democratic Party earlier this year. Jiji Press