Yukio Edano (born 31 May 1964) was leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan from 2 October 2017 to 12 November 2021, succeeding Kenta Izumi.
Biography[]
Yukio Edano was born in Utsonomiya, Japan in 1964, and he became a lawyer at the age of 24 and joined the Japan New Party at the age of 29 in 1993. He was first elected to the House of Representatives from Saitama's 5th district, and he participated in the formation of the Democratic Party of Japan in 1996. He served in various ministries from 2011 to 2012, and, in 2017, he founded Constitutional Democratic Party after Yuriko Koike barred liberal members of the Democratic Party from joining her new Kibo no To party. On 23 October 2017, he became leader of the opposition under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. From 2017 to 2021, he oversaw the consolidation of much of the country's center-left into the CDP after merging the CDP with the Social Democrats and Democratic Party for the People, but the CDP lost 13 seats at the 31 October 2021 general election as Nippon Ishin no Kai capitalized on the growing unpopularity of both the LDP and CDP. As a result of his party's poor performance, Edano resigned as party leader on 12 November 2021.