In the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership election held on the 27th to decide the successor to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, former LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba (67) and Sanae Takaichi, Minister in charge of Economic Security (63), advanced to the runoff vote.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the vote count conducted at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo that afternoon showed that none of the nine candidates secured a majority. Consequently, a runoff vote will be held between the top two candidates, Minister Takaichi and former Secretary-General Ishiba.
In the first round, Minister Takaichi received 181 votes, while former Secretary-General Ishiba obtained 154 votes. Shinjiro Koizumi, former Minister of the Environment, who had been part of a fierce three-way contest, garnered 136 votes.
The runoff vote will be conducted by combining 368 votes from Diet members and 47 votes from local party organizations. In the runoff, the weight of the Diet members' votes is greater. The outcome is expected to hinge on where the votes of candidates who ranked third and fourth in the first round, including former Minister Koizumi, will go.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (center) is voting in the next party leader election held at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on the 27th (local time). [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]
If Minister Takaichi, a right-wing politician known as the "female Abe," wins, Japan will have its first-ever female prime minister. Born in 1961, she is positively evaluated for having held key positions such as Minister of Finance, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, roles commonly held by past prime ministers. If she becomes prime minister, she plans to continue the economic, diplomatic, and security policies of former Prime Minister Abe, including Abenomics.
Initially, the leadership election was expected to be a two-horse race between former Secretary-General Ishiba and former Minister Koizumi, but Minister Takaichi, who had been third in approval ratings, absorbed support from the right-wing conservative faction and led the first round. Earlier, the Sankei Shimbun reported that Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, who has built a strong faction within the LDP despite a slush fund scandal, instructed his affiliated lawmakers to support Minister Takaichi in this election.
Former Secretary-General Ishiba, competing against Minister Takaichi, is a veteran politician with 12 terms and has served twice as party secretary-general, but is considered to have relatively less factional support within the party. In the 2012 election, he ranked first in the first party member vote but lost to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who united the factions. Ishiba, knowledgeable on defense issues, has shown a "dovish" historical perspective different from the right-wing lawmakers within the LDP.
The runoff vote results are expected to be announced around 3 to 4 p.m. The new party leader is scheduled to hold a press conference at 6 p.m. that day. Subsequently, he or she will be nominated as Prime Minister Kishida's successor at the extraordinary Diet session starting on the 1st of next month. In Japan's parliamentary system, the leader of the ruling majority party serves as prime minister. A new cabinet is also expected to be announced on the same day.
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