Yukio Edano

Chief Cabinet Secretary

with James Steinberg 27 January 2011

In January 2011, Edano became Chief Cabinet Secretary.^[4] In March 2011, he was temporarily appointed head of the Foreign Ministry.^[5]

In the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, he was the face of the government efforts to combat the aftermath, frequently appearing on television to talk about the problems at the two reactor facilities in Fukushima. Because of the frequency of his appearances, Twitter users concerned with his health were prompted to post messages asking him to get some sleep. The Twitter hashtag "#edano_nero" became popular, from the imperative word for sleep! (寝ろ, nero) in Japanese.^[6][7]

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry

As economy minister, Edano approved the introduction of feed-in tariffs on 18 June 2012, whereby a percentage of energy use fees are used to subsidize (a shift to) renewable energy.^[8]

Post-cabinet

15 July 2013

Edano left the Cabinet following the DPJ's defeat in the December 2012 general election, but retained his seat representing the Saitama 5th district.

Edano was named secretary general of the DPJ in September 2014. He retained this position in the Democratic Party following the merger of the DPJ with the Japan Innovation Party in March 2016.^[9]

DP leader Renho resigned in July 2017 after the party suffered a poor result in the 2017 Tokyo assembly election. Edano ran in the subsequent leadership election, facing an opponent from the conservative wing of the party in Seiji Maehara. With the liberal wing of the party losing clout due to the influx of conservative Japan Innovation Party members after the merger, Edano only managed to garner 40% of the points up for grabs in the election.^[10] In an attempt to unify the party, the freshly-elected leader Maehara appointed Edano as the deputy president.^[11]

Constitutional Democratic Party

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a surprise announcement for a snap election on 25 September 2017, only three weeks after the DP leadership election. With the party unprepared and in disarray, Maehara was scrambling to find a way to shore up support for the party. At the same day as Abe's election announcement, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike launched a new conservative party called Kibō no Tō (Party of Hope). Seeing Koike's high popularity at that time as a potential asset, Maehara coordinated with Koike on DP candidates' nominations for the election. Koike agreed to endorse DP candidates and Maehara effectively disbanded the party in order to allow the candidates run under the Kibō banner. However, despite Maehara's request, Koike imposed an ideological filter that effectively barred liberal-leaning members of the DP, such as Edano, from joining Kibō. Edano then decided to form a separate party to house liberal DP members rejected by Koike.^[12]

On 2 October 2017, Edano launched the Constitutional Democratic Party as a split from the Democratic Party, becoming the party's leader.^[13] Despite being formed only less than three weeks before the election, the CDP ran a very efficient campaign with a principled platform and used social media in a level unprecedented in Japanese politics.^[14][15] Edano led the party to become the second largest party in the Diet in the general election. He currently serves as Leader of the Opposition.