4 People Enter Nippon Ishin Leadership Race

Osaka, Nov. 17 (Jiji Press)--Hirofumi Yoshimura, co-leader of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), and three others on Sunday filed their candidacies for the Dec. 1 leadership election for the opposition party.

The leadership race comes as Nippon Ishin reduced its number of seats in the House of Representatives, the powerful lower chamber of parliament, by five to 38 in an election last month, missing its goal of becoming the country's largest opposition party.

Yoshimura's contenders in the leadership election are Ryuna Kanemura, 45, and Seiki Soramoto, 60, both Lower House members, and Shigefumi Matsuzawa, 66, a member of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of parliament. Yoshimura, 49, currently serves as governor of Osaka Prefecture.

Current Nippon Ishin leader Nobuyuki Baba opted out of the race amid pressure for the party leadership to take responsibility for the losses in the Lower House election.

Campaigns for the leadership race are expected to focus on ways to rebuild the party toward an Upper House election next summer.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]