Noda Picks Ogawa as CDP Secretary-General

Tokyo, Sept. 24 (Jiji Press)--Yoshihiko Noda, new president of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, on Tuesday picked former party policy chief Junya Ogawa, 53, as secretary-general.

Noda, a 67-year-old former prime minister, also named Kazuhiko Shigetoku, a 53-year-old member of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, as new chairman of the party's Policy Research Committee. Hirofumi Ryu, 59, who was senior deputy chairman of the party's Diet Affairs Committee, was named chairman of the committee.

The CDP decided on the executive appointments at the day's meeting of its lawmakers and then launched the new leadership team. The appointment of middle-ranking party members to key positions is apparently aimed at projecting a sense of party renewal.

Ogawa, a sixth-term Lower House lawmaker elected from Kagawa Prefecture's No. 1 constituency, was an internal affairs ministry official before his first election victory in 2005. He served as parliamentary vice minister for internal affairs under the government of the Democratic Party of Japan, a predecessor of the CDP, more than a decade ago.

He ran in the 2021 CDP presidential race and lost to former President Kenta Izumi, who later tapped him for the role of party policy chief.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]