Shigeru Ishiba speaks before a runoff election at the Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) leadership election on Sept 27, 2024, in Tokyo. - Reuters
TOKYO: Former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba has succeeded in his fifth bid to become Japan’s Prime Minister, as he emerged victorious in a crowded field of nine candidates seeking to succeed Fumio Kishida.
The 67-year-old beat economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, 63, in a run-off vote on Sept 27, after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) presidential election failed to produce a clear winner in the first round the contest.
Ishiba will be sworn in by the Diet as Japan’s 102nd Prime Minister on Oct 1, with Kishida officially stepping down as Prime Minister on the same day.
The leader of the LDP, as the dominant party in both chambers of parliament, is by default Japan’s Prime Minister.
In the first round, the LDP’s 368 lawmakers each cast a vote, with the other half proportionally allocated among 1.1 million rank-and-file members across 47 prefectural chapters.
Takaichi, who ran against Kishida but lost in the 2021 party presidential election, had come up tops in the first round, winning 72 lawmaker votes and 109 rank-and-file votes for a total of 181 votes.
Ishiba placed second, with 46 lawmaker votes and 108 rank-and-file votes for a total of 154 votes.
The duo edged out a third frontrunner, the 43-year-old former environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi, who came up tops among lawmakers with 75 votes. But his 61 rank-and-file votes meant he only managed a total of 136 ballots.
The other candidates were:
Yoshimasa Hayashi, 63, chief cabinet secretary: 65 votes
Takayuki Kobayashi, 49, former economic security minister: 60 votes
Toshimitsu Motegi, 68, LDP secretary-general: 47 votes
Yoko Kamikawa, 71, foreign minister: 40 votes
Taro Kono, 61, digital minister: 30 votes
Katsunobu Kato, 68, former chief cabinet secretary: 22 votes
The LDP wants to turn a new page through this leadership election, with change and reform the buzzwords, as it seeks to regain public trust in the wake of high-profile scandals that had been going on for decades only to erupt under Kishida’s watch.
First came revelations of the LDP’s cosy ties with the controversial Unification Church that has been branded as a cult in some countries, then a massive slush fund scandal that implicated nearly one in five LDP lawmakers.
These improprieties tanked Kishida’s support and reinforced the LDP’s image as a party with vested interests.
The winner will have to clean up the party image, bridge divisions that have surfaced in the hustings and regain public trust, whilst steering Japan through intensifying geopolitical tensions and growing public disaffection over such issues as the rising costs of living and a lack of gender equality.
And then there are imminent national elections, as the winner seeks to earn a strong public mandate.
A snap election for the Lower House is likely to be held within 2024 – well ahead of the expiry of lawmaker terms in October 2025 – while the fixed-term Upper House must go to a vote in July 2025.
A strong showing for the LDP at both elections can well set the stage for constitutional revision. The party regards it as an urgent task to write the military Self-Defence Forces into the war-renouncing Article 9 of the United States-drafted supreme law, which has not been revised since its enactment in 1947.
The new PM will face off against a new Leader of the Opposition. On Sept 23, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan elected as its leader the centrist former prime minister Yoshihiko Noda, 67.
The LDP’s junior coalition partner, Komeito, will also have a fresh face in charge. Secretary-general Keiichi Ishii, 66, will succeed Mr Natsuo Yamaguchi as party chief on Sept 28, with the latter stepping down after 15 years at the helm. - The Straits Times/ANN
