Yōhei Kōno (河野 洋平, Kōno Yōhei; born 15 January 1937) is a Japanese politician and a former President of the Liberal Democratic Party. He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from November 2003 until August 2009, when the LDP lost its majority in the 2009 election. Kōno served as speaker for the longest length since the set up of House of Representatives in 1890.
He was the president of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations from 1999 to 2013.
Taro Kono (河野 太郎, Kōno Tarō; born 10 January 1963) is a Japanese politician who served as the Minister for Digital Transformation from 2022 to 2024. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), he previously served as Minister for Administrative Reform and Regulatory Reform from 2015 to 2016 and from 2020 to 2021, and was the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defense under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He is also a member of the House of Representatives representing Kanagawa's 15th district since 1996.
Born in 1963 the eldest son of House Speaker and LDP President Yōhei Kōno, Kono grew up in a political family. Originally planning to study economics in Japan, he dropped out to attend Georgetown University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service in 1983. After working in the private sector for more than a decade, Kono was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1996. In his career in the House, Kono served on various committees before running in the 2009 LDP leadership election; after losing to Sadakazu Tanigaki, he became Deputy Secretary-General of the LDP. After two years in the opposition, the LDP returned to power in the 2012 general election, while Kono remained a backbencher.
The president of the Liberal Democratic Party (自由民主党総裁, Jiyū-Minshutō Sōsai) is the highest position and executive authority within Japan's Liberal Democratic Party. The current holder of the position is Sanae Takaichi, who was elected to the position on 4 October 2025, following her victory in the party's presidential election. She is the first woman to hold the role.
Due to the dominance of the LDP in Japanese politics, twenty-six of the twenty-eight presidents (all except Yohei Kono and Sadakazu Tanigaki) have also been the prime minister of Japan.
Kōchikai (宏池会; "Broad Pond Society") was a leading faction within Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), founded by bureaucrat-turned-politician Hayato Ikeda in 1957. The faction has produced five prime ministers (Ikeda, Masayoshi Ōhira, Zenkō Suzuki, Kiichi Miyazawa, and Fumio Kishida), two LDP presidents (Yōhei Kōno and Sadakazu Tanigaki), and a large number of cabinet officeholders. The faction was officially dissolved on January 23, 2024 after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to dissolve the faction in the aftermath of a political funds scandal. However, former faction members still meet frequently as a group, exchange information, and collectively exert pressure on other politicians.