JIP to Review Leadership Term After Slow Response to Election Result; Likely to Match LDP, CDPJ with 3-Year Stints

The Yomiuri Shimbun

7:00 JST, December 31, 2024

The Japan Innovation Party has begun considerations on revising its party rules and is highly likely to establish a three-year term for its president.

Currently, the party leader’s term is tied to the dates of national or other major elections.

The current format led to delays in the JIP launching its new party structure, making it slow to respond to Diet and other affairs following its defeat in the House of Representatives election in October.

Current JIP rules state that the party leader’s term runs in principle until 90 days after voting in the earliest among the lower house, House of Councillors and unified local elections. It also states that a decision on whether to hold a leadership election within 45 days of voting will be made at an extraordinary party convention.

In contrast with the three-year term of the president of the Liberal Democratic Party and the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, JIP’s current format aims to “reflect the latest public opinion in the selection of its leader.”

After the latest lower house election, it took the JIP more than a month to hold a leadership election based on party rules before electing Hirofumi Yoshimura, governor of Osaka Prefecture, in December.

While it was busy with the leadership poll, the JIP was unable to make decisions and seemed to fade into the background at the recent extraordinary Diet session. Meanwhile, other parties conducted discussions on political reform and the supplementary budget.

Yoshimura is expected to soon consult the JIP’s governance committee about reviewing the term of the party leader. A three-year term matching the system used by the LDP and the CDPJ is seen as a likely decision.