Press Conference: Junya Ogawa, leader of the Centrist Reform Alliance

Can Japan’s Liberal Opposition Make a Comeback?

Sanae Takaichi led the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to a landslide win in February’s general election, giving them a firm majority in the Lower House. That historic victory wiped out much of the Japanese left and saw the main liberal opposition party, the Centrist Reform Alliance, or Chudo Kaikaku Rengo in Japanese, lose two-thirds of its seats, from 167 to 49.

It is Junya Ogawa’s job to try to claw back some of those seats and rebuild the influence of the party, which was formed from a hasty merger of the Komeito and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. Ogawa, 54, was elected president of the party after the election defeat, and he faces an uphill battle given the party's diminished standing and aging voter base.