Tokyo, 29 June, /AJMEDIA/
Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba is preparing to run in the presidential election of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in September, with an eye to becoming Japan’s next prime minister, sources close to him said Friday.
Political pundits said that if he runs, House of Representatives lawmaker Ishiba, believed to be popular among the public, would pose a significant threat to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s chances of being reelected in the party’s leadership race.
With a slush funds scandal driving down support for the LDP to its lowest level in more than 10 years, there is a desire within the party for Ishiba to become its head as the lower house is set to be dissolved for a snap election by October 2025, the pundits said.
A Kyodo News poll earlier this month showed that only 10.4 percent of respondents want Kishida to win the LDP’s upcoming presidential race. Ishiba, who is soft-spoken but a security hawk, is seen as the most suitable replacement, with 26.2 percent supporting him.
Regarding his vision for the government, Ishiba, a former LDP secretary general, has expressed his eagerness to run in the presidential race, saying, “I am constantly renewing my ideas on security and the economy so that I can put them forward at any time.”
The 12th-term lower house lawmaker has run in the LDP leadership race four times, all of which were unsuccessful bids. He was viewed as a vocal critic of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in July 2022.
Ishiba did not run in the previous presidential election in 2021. He supported Taro Kono, a reform-minded maverick and social media-savvy lawmaker, along with former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, a rising star in Japanese politics.
Digital Minister Kono has also informed LDP Vice President Taro Aso, a former prime minister, that he intends to run in the presidential race during a dinner meeting, a source close to the matter said Thursday.
The son of a Tottori governor, Ishiba worked as a banker before winning a seat in the lower house in 1986 as an LDP candidate. He left the party in 1993 for the now-defunct Japan Renewal Party and the New Frontier Party before returning to the LDP in 1997.
Ishiba is rumored to be one of the preferred candidates of former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Kishida’s predecessor and still a powerbroker in the LDP, who has recently urged the incumbent to consider stepping down over his handling of the scandal.
The LDP has come under intense scrutiny amid allegations that some of its factions, such as the largest one formerly led by Abe, neglected to report portions of their income from fundraising parties and created slush funds.
© KYODO
