Tadatomo Yoshida elected as Japanese SDP's new leader

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TOKYO, Oct. 14 -- Tadatomo Yoshida, a 57-year-old Japanese upper house lawmaker, was elected Monday as chief of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a Japanese opposition party, to succeed Mizuho Fukushima who resigned from the post in July.

Yoshida defeat another candidate, 39-year-old Taiga Ishikawa who is an assemblyman in Tokyo's Toshima Ward, in a two-candidate race, with voting by the 17,410 party members including the party' s five lawmakers.

Yoshida, the party's policy chief, won 9,986 votes, compared with 2,239 votes garnered by the younger politician, according to local media.

The new SDP chief will serve the remainder of the term of Fukushima and will stay in his post until the party's convention in the early part of 2016, said Japan's Kyodo News, adding that he is expected to mostly retain the executive lineup.

It is the SDP's first leadership election since 1996 when the party changed its name to the current one. Fukushima resigned due to the party's failure in Japan's Diet elections.

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