Maverick politician Ichiro Ozawa was tapped yesterday to lead Japan's main opposition party and challenge the ruling party's front-runner in the race to become prime minister.
Ozawa has led the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) since April, when the previous party head, Seiji Maehara, stepped down in a scandal over a fake e-mail.
Ozawa is serving the remainder of Maehara's term, which ends this month, and had to stand for election.
He was chosen by default yesterday as the party's next president because no one else in the party had registered to challenge him. The result must still be endorsed in a Sept. 25 party vote.
Whoever leads the DPJ will likely challenge front-runner Shinzo Abe of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the quest to become Japan's next prime minister, which parliament is set to elect on Sept. 26.
Abe, who is currently chief Cabinet secretary, is expected to defeat fellow party members Sadakazu Tanigaki and Taro Aso in a Sept. 20 ballot to pick the new LDP leader.
The LDP candidate is almost certain to become prime minister because of the party's dominance in parliament.
Ozawa, a former LDP member, is seen as having the political clout and experience needed to take on the ruling party. He served as the LDP's secretary-general three times before breaking with the party in 1993.
That party was instrumental in breaking the LDP's nearly 40 years of uninterrupted power when together with several other small parties it formed a coalition government in 1993.
Ozawa joined the DPJ in 2003.
He is known for favoring an expanded role for the country's military in international peacekeeping operations.
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