Former International Trade and Industry Minister Mitsuo Horiuchi was named Monday as the leader of a new faction in the Liberal Democratic Party formed by breakaway members of the faction headed by Koichi Kato, lawmakers said Monday.
Horiuchi, 71, was selected as the new faction's leader in a meeting attended by nine influential members who have been opposed to Kato's leadership ever since his aborted attempt to oust Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in November.
Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, 81, will serve as "top adviser" of the new faction, which will be launched at a meeting Jan. 31 with some 40 members of both houses of the Diet attending, the members said.
Kato, 61, who was considered a promising candidate to replace the unpopular prime minister, announced in mid-November a plan to support a no-confidence motion against Mori's Cabinet if opposition parties submitted one.
He also encouraged Taku Yamasaki, another LDP dissident who leads a faction with 19 members, to join him in his attempt to oust Mori.
But Kato gave up his plan and informed the media about 30 minutes before a session was to vote on a no-confidence motion that he had been persuaded by senior LDP members to change his mind and not attend the vote.