Four Candidates for Next Japanese Prime Minister... Seiko Noda to Run in LDP Leadership Election

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The number of candidates for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership election to choose the successor to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has increased to four.

Seiko Noda, acting secretary-general of the LDP, announced her intention to run at a press conference held at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo on the 16th, stating that she had secured the necessary 20 endorsements from members of the National Diet to qualify as a candidate, NHK reported.

Acting Secretary-General Noda stated, "I will create a conservative politics where women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities, who have not played leading roles until now, can live properly in society," explaining her reason for running.

Accordingly, the candidates running in the LDP leadership election, to be officially announced on the 17th, have increased to four: Acting Secretary-General Noda, Administrative Reform Minister Taro Kono, former LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Fumio Kishida, and former Minister for Internal Affairs Sanae Takaichi.

Noda, a reform-minded politician without faction affiliation, is a nine-term member of the House of Representatives first elected in 1993. She has served as Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minister in charge of Consumer Affairs, Minister for Internal Affairs, and as LDP General Council Chairman.

Noda supports the "selective couple separate surname" system, which places her at policy odds with the conservative faction within the LDP. The selective couple separate surname system allows married couples to retain their respective surnames if they wish after marriage.

Running for the LDP leadership election for the first time, Noda is also the president of the Japan-Korea Women’s Friendship Association, and her husband is known to be a third-generation Korean resident in Japan.

Among the four candidates in this LDP leadership election, Noda and former Minister Takaichi are women. This is the first time that two female politicians have run in the LDP leadership election.

Previously, in the 2008 leadership election, Yuriko Koike, the current Governor of Tokyo, ran and placed third behind Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso and others, marking the first instance of a female politician running in the LDP leadership election.