Opposition leader Edano to quit post after poor election results
The leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic
Party of Japan, Yukio Edano, said Tuesday he will resign from the post after
his party failed to win over voters in last weekend's general election despite
public dissatisfaction with the government's COVID-19 response.
Edano decided to end his four-year stint since founding the
CDPJ in October 2017, after the CDPJ's seats shrank from 110 to 96 in the
election on Sunday as it was shunned by voters in the proportional
representation section of the election.
"My inadequacy is the reason this happened," he
said at a party meeting. "I apologize from the bottom of my heart to all
of the party executives, to all of our supporters across the country, and most
of all to our colleagues who unfortunately were not elected."
The 57-year-old had criticized Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
and his predecessors for their handling of the pandemic and economic policies,
calling for a change in government from the ruling coalition led by the Liberal
Democratic Party.
The approval rating for the Cabinet of then Prime Minister
Yoshihide Suga had been on the fall in media polls, partly as the public was
not satisfied with the government's measures against the pandemic. After
Kishida took office on Oct 4 to replace Suga, the support rate for his Cabinet
was also relatively low for a new prime minister.
The CDPJ had expected to increase its numbers in the
465-seat House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, after
unifying candidates with other opposition groups including the Japanese
Communist Party in more than 200 single-member districts to avoid splitting the
anti-LDP vote.
A number of high-profile CDPJ candidates lost in their
single-member districts, including heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa in Iwate Prefecture
and deputy leader Kiyomi Tsujimoto in Osaka Prefecture, who failed to even gain
a seat under proportional representation.
Major supporter Rengo, Japan's largest labor organization,
had strongly opposed cooperating with the JCP and said in a statement following
the election that the CDPJ had "significant issues to resolve."
"It is the CDPJ's responsibility to take the next step
toward becoming an alternative choice for government. In order to do that, I
decided we need to prepare for next year's House of Councillors election and
the next general election under a new leader," Edano said.
Edano said he will remain in the post until the end of the
special parliamentary session to convene Nov. 10.
CDPJ Secretary General Tetsuro Fukuyama said he will also
step down to take responsibility for the election result, but only after
Edano's successor is chosen in a party vote to be held within the year.
"Never in my dreams did I imagine we would lose
seats," Fukuyama said in a press briefing. "It's unfortunate, but
some of our new candidates were able to eke out wins thanks to cooperation with
other opposition groups."
Well known for his time as the government's top spokesman
during the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Edano led a group of liberal
lawmakers who moved from the now-defunct Democratic Party to form the CDPJ.
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