Ozawa was appointed to lead the LDP's election strategy in the 1983 general election, the first to employ a closed list system, and led the effort to elect Sadakazu Tanigaki and Hiromu Nonaka to fill open seats representing Kyoto Prefecture. By the 1980s, he became one of the popular young leaders in the LDP, along with Tsutomu Hata and Ryutaro Hashimoto, both of whom were later elected as prime ministers, in the Tanaka/Takeshita faction. His rivalry with Hashimoto was particularly prominent, being dubbed the Ichi-Ryu War by the press.