Nippon Ishin Expels 3 Member Lawmakers

Tokyo, Sept. 17 (Jiji Press)–Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) at a meeting of executives on Wednesday expelled three member lawmakers critical of its new leadership team. The three–Tadashi Morishima, Hiroki Abe and Takeshi Saiki–had submitted letters of resignation from the opposition party. But the leadership team refused to accept their offers to quit. Noting that the three also called on other member lawmakers to leave Nippon Ishin, the party rapped the trio for undermining its reputation and engaging in acts that disrupted order within the party. The three are members of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Japan’s parliament. Morishima has been elected from the No. 2 constituency in the western prefecture of Osaka, while Abe and Saiki have won proportional representation seats, in the Kyushu southwestern bloc and the Hokuriku-Shinetsu bloc in central Japan, respectively. After submitting their resignations from Nippon Ishin on Sept. 8, the three lawmakers at a press conference the same day criticized party management by the new leadership team, including co-leader Fumitake Fujita. At a press conference held after Wednesday’s executive meeting, Nippon Ishin Secretary-General Hiroshi Nakatsuka showed the party’s plan to urge Morishima, Abe and Saiki to resign as lawmakers. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]