Takemi to Lead LDP in Upper House

Tokyo, Nov. 6 (Jiji Press)--House of Councillors lawmakers of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Wednesday elected former welfare minister Keizo Takemi as the party's next leader in the Upper House.

Takemi, 73, will succeed current leader Masakazu Sekiguchi, who is expected to be elected president of the Upper House at a special Diet session to be convened on Monday.

At a special meeting of the LDP's Upper House lawmakers on Wednesday, Takemi said he would leave his LDP faction, led by former LDP Vice President Taro Aso, as LDP executives in the Upper House left their factions in January this year.

Takemi was first elected to the Upper House in 1995, as a candidate endorsed by the Japan Medical Association. He served as welfare minister, his first cabinet post, in the administration of former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

It was also decided Wednesday that Masaji Matsuyama, 65, LDP secretary-general in the Upper House, and Junichi Ishii, 66, LDP chief of Diet affairs in the parliamentary chamber, will remain in their posts. Toshiharu Furukawa, 61, was newly chosen as chair of the LDP Policy Board in the Upper House.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]