A day after being clobbered in Sunday's general election, the Democratic Party of Japan said it will vote for a new party leader this weekend.
Names bandied about as possible successors to Katsuya Okada include DPJ heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa as well as former party chiefs Naoto Kan and Yukio Hatoyama, as the largest opposition party will need a strong leader to pull it together and ward off collapse after its resounding defeat.
The DPJ's strength in the 480-seat House of Representatives dropped from a pre-election 177 to 113, as urban and unaffiliated voters -- segments of the electorate that in the past tended to vote DPJ -- warmed to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.