Japan’s ruling party votes to elect new leader and country’s next prime minister

Japan’s ruling party will elect the successor to outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday in a race likely to decide the next leader of the nation. 

The contest features a record nine candidates and could result in Japan’s youngest or first female premier or see a seasoned politician finally assume the post.

Kishida had thrown the Liberal Democratic Party for a loop when he announced in August that he would not be running for its top office, effectively ending his three-year term. 

The winner of the LDP poll is expected to be approved as prime minister in a vote by parliament on Oct. 1 and will inherit a government marked by a corruption scandal and an economy in transition. The party has a majority in both chambers of the legislature, effectively ensuring its chief becomes the next prime minister.

Polls suggest that the favorites in the election include ex-environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi, economic security minister Sanae Takaichi and former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba.

Ishiba, 67, is running for the post for a fifth time and has endorsed the Bank of Japan’s policy of steadily raising interest rates and called for the establishment of an Asian NATO to deter threats from China and North Korea.

Takaichi, 63, is one of two women in the race and has argued that Japan’s economy needs more fiscal stimulus and to strengthen in the fields of diplomacy and defense. 

The 43-year-old Koizumi has the least high-level government experience of the bunch and would be Japan’s youngest prime minister in the post–World War II era. He has promised social and economic reforms and to increase LDP transparency. 

If no candidate secures a simple majority among the many contenders, a run-off will be held between the two with the most votes in the first round.

Japan’s new leader will have to steer the country through a precarious economic and political period.

Challenges facing the country include its transition from three decades of stagnation, mounting diplomatic and security challenges posed by China and a potential second Trump term in the U.S., and a demographic crisis as the country rapidly ages.