Upper House Election: Liberal Democratic Party’s Keizo Takemi Loses Diet Seat, Expresses Intention to Retire

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:19 JST, July 21, 2025

Keizo Takemi, 73, a Liberal Democratic Party member, lost his Diet seat in Sunday’s upper house election. The former Health, Labor and Welfare minister couldn’t win his seat for the sixth time.

Takemi was running for the Tokyo constituency of the House of Councillors, in which seven seats were contested. The LDP failed to achieve its goal of winning two seats.

Takemi met Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and other party executives at the LDP headquarters at around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday. “It became a severe result. I’m sorry for my poor performance,” he told reporters at the headquarters.

He also expressed his intention to retire from politics, saying “my role as a Diet lawmaker has ended.”

During the final phase of the election campaign, former prime ministers, as well as, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shinjiro Koizumi appeared at his campaign sites. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike attended Takemi’s campaign speech gatherings twice in order to support him.

Takemi also tried to secure ballots from organized voters by, for example, visiting the Japan Medical Association, which was his main supporter. However, Takemi failed to resist the winds from voters toward the ruling camp.