Ichiro Ozawa Elected Democratic Party Leader
Japan's largest opposition Democratic Party has chosen Ichiro Ozawa as its new leader, tasked with rebuilding the scandal-hit party.
One-hundred and ninety-one of the Democratic Party's 192 members of Parliament voted in the presidential election in Tokyo on Friday.
Mr Ozawa, a one-time deputy party leader, won 119 votes, defeating the only other candidate, former party leader Naoto Kan. Mr Kan received 72 votes.
Mr Ozawa will replace Seiji Maehara, who resigned last week to take responsibility for a recent fake e-mail scandal.
OZAWA PROFILE
Mr Ichiro Ozawa is 63 years old.
Mr Ozawa was first elected to the Lower House in 1969 as the youngest lawmaker that year from the Liberal Democratic Party. He succeeded his father, who had served as construction minister, among other posts.
Mr Ozawa has been elected to 13 consecutive terms.
During his Liberal Democratic Party days, Mr Ozawa joined the faction of former prime minister Kakuei Tanaka. He went on to co-found a faction led by former prime minister Noboru Takeshita.
In 1989, after serving as home affairs minister and deputy chief cabinet secretary, Mr Ozawa became the Liberal Democratic Party's secretary general at the young age of 47.
But in 1993, Mr Ozawa left the governing party with Tsutomu Hata, to support a no-confidence motion against the cabinet of Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa over its handling of political reform bills.
Together, they founded the Japan Renewal Party, which played a critical role in establishing the anti-Liberal Democratic Party coalition government under Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa.
The Renewal Party then launched a short-lived government led by Prime Minister Hata.
In 1994, the New Frontier Party was launched. Mr Ozawa became the party's leader in 1995.
But two years later, the New Frontier Party was dissolved.
Mr Ozawa then launched the Liberal Party.
In 1999, his party formed a coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party and took part in government. But the party left the administration the following year.
In 2003, the Liberal Party merged with the Democratic Party. Since then, Mr Ozawa has concentrated his efforts on nurturing a two-party political system in Japan.
