Yukio Edano, head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, makes a speech before lawmakers cast their votes to choose the leader of a new opposition party to be created through the merger of the CDPJ and the Democratic Party for the People on Sept. 10, 2020, in Tokyo. (Kyodo)

TOKYO - Yukio Edano, a 56-year-old veteran Japanese lawmaker who was the government's top spokesman at the time of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis, was named Thursday as the leader of a new merged opposition party to be formed in the hope of mounting a united front against the ruling coalition.