Japan opposition party picks first female leader after citizenship hiccup

Japan's main opposition Democratic Party on Thursday elected a former cabinet minister as its first female leader on Thursday, following a last-minute hiccup when she was found to hold dual citizenship in violation of Japanese law. Renho, 48, who goes by her given name only, hopes to repair the party's image, battered by three years in power that were plagued by infighting, policy flip flops and unkept promises that handed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) a landslide election win in 2012. Born to a Japanese mother and Taiwanese father, the former TV announcer and mother of twins was embarrassed this week when she discovered she held Taiwanese as well as Japanese citizenship.