Veteran Lawmaker Yoriko Kawaguchi Joins New 'Centrist Reform Alliance,' Challenging DPFP Over Social Reforms
House of Representatives member Yoriko Kawaguchi (78) has announced her intention to leave the Democratic Party for the People (DPFP) and join the new party, 'Centrist Reform Alliance.' According to reports from Kyodo News and other outlets, this marks the first instance of an incumbent DPFP lawmaker joining the Centrist Reform Alliance. Kawaguchi aims to run as a certified candidate for the new party in Tokyo's 17th district in the next general election for the House of Representatives. Kawaguchi has been a political veteran advocating for the introduction of selective separate surnames for married couples for over 30 years. Information on social media suggests that Kawaguchi harbored strong dissatisfaction with the DPFP leadership's ambiguous stance on selective separate surnames, which was perceived as an attempt to gain support from the net-right, who back figures like Shinzo Abe and Sanae Takaichi. With DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki and Secretary-General Kazunari Shi...