Japan’s opposition leader quits over poor election results

Tokyo, July 27 (IANS) Renho Murata, leader of Japan's main opposition Democratic Party (DP), resigned on Thursday over her party's poor performance in Tokyo's municipal elections.

At a press conference in Tokyo, Murata, 49, accepted responsibility for her party's performance in the elections. Murata said she will step down to make way for new leadership as her party had managed to get only five out of the 127 seats in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly elections, Efe news reported.

Murata, an ex-model and journalist, had failed to recover DP's credibility after its loss in the 2012 elections.

In September 2016, Murata became the first woman to lead the opposition in a country where the political landscape is dominated by men, although she failed to last even a year in office.

Once considered an emerging political leader due to her popularity, the leader was unable to capitalise on the decline of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, unlike Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike, whose new party swept the local elections.

Ever since she took charge of the opposition party Murata, born to a Taiwanese father and Japanese mother, had faced criticism for not acquiring Japanese citizenship (although she was born in the country) until she was 17.

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