Tokyo, 17 September, /AJMEDIA/
Campaigning for the Japanese ruling party’s leadership election to choose the successor to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga officially started Friday, with four veteran lawmakers — two men and two women — throwing their hats into the ring.
The presidential election for the Liberal Democratic Party, set for Sept. 29, is being contested by former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, former communications minister Sanae Takaichi, vaccination minister Taro Kono and Seiko Noda, executive acting secretary general of the LDP, with none having a clear path to victory.
The LDP is choosing its new president, who will become prime minister as the party controls the House of Representatives, the powerful lower chamber of parliament, after Suga earlier this month announced his resignation as public support for his government hit new lows due to dissatisfaction with his COVID-19 response.
The candidates are slated to deliver policy speeches in the afternoon before holding a joint press conference.
Kono, a reform-minded maverick in the conservative party who in the past has ruffled feathers by opposing nuclear energy and abandoning a costly missile defense system, was viewed as the early front-runner.
Junior lawmakers with more vulnerable seats are especially drawn to the 58-year-old, who tops opinion polls on who should succeed Suga as prime minister, as they are seeking to install a popular leader ahead of a general election this fall.
Most of the LDP’s major factions are allowing members to vote freely, unlike in past presidential elections in which faction bosses such as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso and LDP Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai, the party’s No. 2 in command, dictated how votes should be cast.
Kono also got a boost from winning the backing of Shigeru Ishiba, a popular former defense minister who decided to sit out the race.
Kishida, another strong contender, is expected to gather support from veteran lawmakers who are uncomfortable with Kono’s reformist streak.
The 64-year-old also has the advantage of being able to count on votes from his own faction, which has 47 members.
Both Takaichi and Noda are aiming to become Japan’s first female prime minister, an achievement that would be both historic and long overdue in a country that places lowest among the Group of Seven nations in the World Economic Forum’s gender gap rankings.
In the election, LDP lawmakers and rank-and-file members will each cast 383 votes with the candidate taking the majority the winner. If no one secures more than 50 percent of votes, a runoff will take place with greater weight given to the lawmakers.
The late entry of 61-year-old Noda, who announced her bid Thursday, has raised the chances of an indecisive first round, making it harder to predict who the eventual victor will be.
The 60-year-old Takaichi, part of the LDP’s right-leaning cohort and closely allied with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has vowed to continue making regular visits to the war-linked Yasukuni shrine, a move sure to strain relations with China and South Korea that both see the site of worship as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism.
