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On August 6, voting was held to elect the Chair of the DPJ caucus in the House of Councillors, following the appointment of the previous incumbent, Azuma Koshiishi, as Vice President of the upper house. Akira Gunji was elected as the new Chair after obtaining a majority, 33 votes out of a possible 57 cast. Toshimi Kitazawa obtained 24 votes, with one Diet member being overseas on official business.
In a press conference following the meeting, Gunji said, “After fighting the election, I vowed to thoroughly unite the caucus without taking sides. Having received 33 votes is a weighty responsibility. At the same time, I feel the need to make efforts to unite the caucus as one. There is no doubt that we will be facing an election in the House of Councillors in three years’ time, and I would like to ensure that at that time we can see results from the new movement that we will be embarking on from today.” With regard to the specifics of this, Gunji said that he would like to see the 58 members of the caucus form teams of 3 or so, which would then proceed to draft legislative proposals based on their various specialities, with the aim being to achieve unity during this process.
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