Japan's Komeito party formally chose House of Representatives lawmaker Mitsunari Okamoto, 61, as its new leader ahead of an extraordinary Diet session.
Komeito, the former junior partner in Japan's long-ruling coalition, on Saturday formally selected Mitsunari Okamoto as its new leader. Kyodo News said the choice was made after merger talks collapsed and as the party prepares for an extraordinary Diet session next week.
Okamoto, 61, a member of the House of Representatives, replaces Toshiko Takeya. Takeya, a senator, had led the party since January after its lower-house lawmakers joined the opposition Centrist Reform Alliance, which later split in September.
The leadership vote was approved at a party convention. Komeito will sit in a new opposition parliamentary caucus for the coming session, Kyodo reported.
The party spent years as the junior partner to the Liberal Democratic Party before that arrangement ended. Saturday's selection is the first leadership change since the failed merger talks and the September split of the centrist alliance.
The extraordinary Diet session opens next week. Okamoto takes the post with the party outside government and with its lower-house contingent recently reshuffled by the alliance split.