Japan Election: Komeito Leader Keiichi Ishii Fails to Win Seat in Election; Party to Be Forced to Restructure Administration (Update 1)

The Yomiuri Shimbun

1:38 JST, October 28, 2024 (updated at 12:00 JST)

Keiichi Ishii, the 66-year-old chief representative of Komeito, lost out in the battle for Saitama Constituency No. 14, joining a long list of cabinet ministers and other key figures in both the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito who failed to win seats in Sunday’s House of Representatives election.

Ishii had just assumed the post of chief representative at the party convention in September, succeeding Natsuo Yamaguchi. Komeito will now be forced to drastically rebuild the party’s administrative structure.

In past elections, Ishii had won a seat in the Diet though the proportional representation segment but was running in a single-seat constituency for the first time in this election. Ishii was aiming to be selected as a Diet member for the 11th time.

This is the first time in 15 years that a chief representative of Komeito has not been elected to the House of Representatives since Akihiro Ota was eliminated in the 2009 lower house election.