2021 Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan presidential election

The 2021 Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan presidential election took place on 30 November 2021 to elect the next president of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan after the inaugural leader of the party, Yukio Edano, announced his intention to resign as party leader citing the party's poor performance in the 2021 general election.

2021 Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan presidential election

30 November 2021
572 points for the first round 286 points needed to avoid a runoff
Candidate Kenta Izumi Seiji Osaka Leader's seat Rep for Kyoto-3rd Rep for Hokkaido-8th First Round 189 (33.0%) 148 (25.9%) Runoff 205 (61.6%) 128 (38.4%)   Candidate Junya Ogawa Chinami Nishimura Leader's seat Rep for Kagawa-1st Rep for Niigata-1st First Round 133 (23.3%) 102 (17.8%) Runoff Eliminated Eliminated
Leader before election Yukio Edano Elected Leader Kenta Izumi

Background

Founded in October 2017 as a split from the Democratic Party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan achieved the status of the opposition's largest force after the 2017 general election, when it became the second largest party in the Diet, with 55 seats in the House of Representatives. In September 2020, the party was re-established following a merger with most of the DPP and SDP caucuses, and some independent lawmakers. After the merger, the number of seats rose to 110.

In order to increase the weight of the opposition, the CDP decided to establish joint candidacies with three other progressive parties (JCP, SDP and Reiwa Shinsengumi) in most of the electoral districts for the 2021 general election. Although the cooperation strategy and a slight increase in votes for the party had led to an increase in the seats obtained compared to 2017 (from 55 to 96), these were still inferior to the number of seats held by the party before the vote (110). Furthermore, the majority of polls predicted better results for the CDP. Therefore, Yukio Edano decided to step down, so that a new leadership could reorganize the party in view of the elections for the Upper House in the summer of 2022.

Timeline

2021

• 2 November – Yukio Edano announces his resignation as party president.
• 13 November – Party officials announce the election will be held on 30 November 2021.
• 17 November - Kenta Izumi, Seiji Osaka and Chinami Nishimura announced their candidacies.
• 18 November - Junya Ogawa announced his candidacy.
• 19 November – Campaign officially began.
• 22 November – The first of three public debate between the leadership candidates was held.
• 30 November - The leadership election was held, in which Kenta Izumi won.

Candidates

Candidate(s)		Date of birth	Current position	Party faction	Electoral district
Kenta Izumi		(1974-07-29)29 July 1974 (age 47)	Member of the House of Representatives (since 2003) Previous offices held Parliamentary Secretary of the Cabinet Office (2009–2010)	Shin Seiken Kenkyūkai (Izumi)	Kyoto 3rd district
Seiji Osaka		(1959-04-27)27 April 1959 (age 62)	Member of the House of Representatives (since 2005) Previous offices held Mayor of Niseko, Hokkaido (1994-2005) Special Advisor to the Prime Minister for local activation (2009-2010) Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications (2010-2011)	Sanctuary (Kondō)	Hokkaido 8th district
Chinami Nishimura		(1967-01-13)13 January 1967 (age 54)	Member of the House of Representatives (since 2003) Previous offices held Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs (2009–2010) State Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare (2011–2012)	Kuni no Katachi Kenkyūkai (Kan)	Niigata 1st district
Junya Ogawa		(1971-04-18)18 April 1971 (age 50)	Member of the House of Representatives (since 2005) Previous offices held Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications (2009–2010)	Sanctuary (Kondō)	Kagawa-1st

Declined

• Hiroshi Ogushi, member of the House of Representatives for Saga 2nd district; former member of the House of Representatives for Kyushu PR (2005–2009; 2012–2017) (endorsed Ogawa)

Candidate(s)	Date of birth	Current position	Party faction	Electoral district
Hiroshi Ogushi	(1965-08-31)31 August 1965 (age 56)	Member of the House of Representatives (since 2005) Previous offices held Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Finance (2009–2010) Parliamentary Secretary of the Cabinet Office (2011–2012) Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Reconstruction (2012) Special Advisor to the Prime Minister (2012)		Saga 2nd district

Recommenders

List of recommenders

Candidate	Seiji Osaka	Junya Ogawa	Kenta Izumi	Chinami Nishimura
Recommenders	Kaori Ishikawa Kureha Otsuki Shoichi Kondo Kaname Tsutsumi Daiki Michishita Tatsumaru Yamaoka Michiyoshi Yunoki Yoshifu Arita Takashi Esaki Masahito Ozawa Kenji Katsube Makiko Kishi Yoshitaka Saito Maiko Tajima Masayoshi Nataniya Shinkun Haku Yoshio Hachiro Shunichi Mizuoka Takashi Moriya Tadatomo Yoshida	Yoichiro Aoyagi Shunsuke Ito Shuji Inatomi Hiroshi Ogushi Soichiro Okuno Takayuki Ochiai Saori Kamata Makiko Kikuta Kentaro Genma Kazuya Kondo Shu Sakurai Takeshi Shina Yoichi Shiraishi Yosuke Suzuki Kaname Tajima Yoshio Tezuka Manabu Terada Katsuhito Nakajima Kazuma Nakatani Hajime Yatagawa Shunji Yuhara Hiroyuki Konishi Ayaka Shiomura Hiroyuki Nagahama Kuniyoshi Noda	Yamato Aoyama Yutaka Arai Nobuhiko Isaka Takeshi Kozu Yuichi Goto Koji Sato Go Shinohara Mitsu Shimojo Seiichi Suetsugu Yoshinori Suematsu Hisashi Tokunaga Takeshi Noma Akio Fukuda Sumio Mabuchi Toshikazu Morita Katsuhiko Yamada Kazunori Yamanoi Tsunehiko Yoshida Eiji Kidoguchi Yukimasa Koga Masayo Tanabu Jiro Hata Hiroe Makiyama Shinji Morimoto Takanori Yokosawa	Tomoko Abe Masako Okawara Akiko Okamoto Nobuhiro Koyama Naoto Kan Takashi Shinohara Masaharu Nakagawa Hiroyuki Moriyama Makoto Yamazaki Harumi Yoshida Yuki Waseda So Watanabe Noriko Ishigaki Taiga Ishikawa Michihiro Ishibashi Sakura Uchikoshi Ryohei Kawata Hideya Sugio Hiroto Kumagai Yuichi Mayama

Opinion polls

Fieldwork date	Polling firm	Sample size	Kenta Izumi	Seiji Osaka	Chinami Nishimura	Junya Ogawa	Hiroshi Ogushi	Kenji Eda	Sumio Mabuchi	Kōichirō Genba	Renhō	Akira Nagatsuma	Katsuya Okada	Others	NOT/ UD/NA
20–21 Nov 2021	ANN	1,031	12	8	10	9	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	61
10–11 Nov 2021	Kyodo News	520	8.1	–	3.6	6.7	2.4	–	7.2	6.7	–	–	–	5.9	59.4
10–11 Nov 2021	Nikkei/TV Tokyo	852	3	2	–	6	1	4	4	4	14	11	7	–	44

Results

An extraordinary party convention was held at a hotel in Tokyo on the afternoon of November 30. Following the announcement of the results of the "local vote" by local lawmakers, party members and supporters, which was closed on the 29th, parliamentarians and prospective official candidates voted.

From the first round of the vote, Izumi was 1st (189 points), Osaka was 2nd (148 points), Ogawa was 3rd (133 points), and Nishimura was 4th (102 points). None of the four candidates reached the majority of 572 votes in total, so Izumi and Osaka advanced to the final vote of the top two. As a result of a final vote by a member of parliament, prospective official candidate, and representatives from 47 prefectures, Izumi, who got 205 points, defeated Osaka, who got 128 points, and was elected as the new leader of the party.

Full result

Candidate
	Diet members		Diet candidates		Local assembly members			Party members			Prefectural chapters		Total
	Votes	%	Votes	%	Popular votes	Allocated votes	%	Popular votes	Allocated votes	%	Votes	%	Votes		%
1st Round
Kenta Izumi	94	33.6%	2	33.3%	369	46	32.2%	15,200	47	32.9%	N/A		189		33.0%
Seiji Osaka	58	20.7%	4	66.7%	385	48	33.6%	12,411	38	26.6%			148		25.9%
Junya Ogawa	72	25.7%	0	0.0%	219	27	18.9%	10,912	34	23.8%			133		23.3%
Chinami Nishimura	56	20.0%	0	0.0%	183	22	15.4%	7,666	24	16.8%			102		17.8%
Total	280	100.0%	6	100.0%	1,156	143	100.0%	46,189	143	100.0%			572		100.0%
2nd Round
Kenta Izumi	168	60.0%	2	33.3%	N/A						35	74.5%	205		61.6%
Seiji Osaka	112	40.0%	4	66.7%							12	25.5%	128		38.4%
Junya Ogawa	Eliminated
Chinami Nishimura	Eliminated
Total	280	100.0%	6	100.0%							47	100.0%	333		100.0%