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The ruling party in Japan is voting to elect a new leader who will almost certainly become the next prime minister, after Yoshihide Suga stepped down after only one year in office.
Four candidates, including two women, will run for the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberal Democratic Party) leader vote on Wednesday. Whoever wins will face general elections within a few weeks.
The front runner is the 58-year-old Kono Taro, an educated vaccine secretary in the United States. He is regarded as a maverick. He has served as a defense and foreign minister, and the 64-year-old former foreign minister Fumio Kishida and the consensus builder are burdened with plain Image.
Other competitors are the 60-year-old former Minister of the Interior Sanae Takaichi, an ultraconservative, and 61-year-old Seiko Noda, from the party’s shrinking liberals.
Taro Kono (left) is the cabinet minister in charge of vaccination, and Fumio Kishida is the former foreign minister [File: Eugene Hoshiko/ Pool via AP]Party lawmakers will start voting at a hotel in Tokyo at 1 pm (04:00 GMT). The results are scheduled to be announced at 2.20 pm (05:20 GMT).
Opinion polls show that Kono is the most popular among the public, but predictions show that Kono does not have the 383 votes required for the majority of votes.
This means that the first two candidates will immediately enter the final vote, and the winner needs to get 215 votes out of a total of 429 votes.
In the case of a tiebreaker, some predictions are in favor of Kishida, as more conservative factions are expected to vote to block Kono.
The result of the voting is expected to be announced around 3.40 pm (06:40 GMT).
Former Minister of the Interior Sanae Koichi receives support from former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe [Philip Fong/Pool via AP]
Former Minister of the Interior Seiko Noda participated in a debate organized by the Liberal Democratic Party, Youth Bureau, and Women’s Bureau at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday, September 20, 2021 [Philip Fong/Pool via AP]As Japan seeks to deal with a strong China and revitalize the economy hit by the pandemic, the victory of any one candidate is unlikely to trigger a huge change in policy.
Kono, Kishida, and Noda all emphasized the need for dialogue with China as an important neighbor and trading partner. The four candidates all support maintaining close “practical ties” with Taiwan, which China claims to be its autonomous island.
Koichi, supported by Suga’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is more outspoken on issues such as obtaining the ability to strike enemy missile launchers.
She also made it clear that as prime minister, she will visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which is regarded as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism in Beijing and Seoul. Kono said he would not.
The candidates also clash in their cultural values. Kono agrees to amend the law to allow same-sex marriages and married couples to have separate surnames, which is abhorred by higher-ranking conservatives.
Noda, meanwhile, has pledged to aim for women to make up half her cabinet if elected, but she is seen as a long-shot time this time around.
As the Liberal Democratic Party holds a majority in the powerful lower house of parliament, the new party chairman is expected to become the next prime minister.
The general election must be held before November 28.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks at a press conference held at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Tokyo, Japan on September 28, 2021 [Rodrigo Reyes Marin/Pool via Reuters]Unlike previous votes, when Yoshihide Suga’s choice was mainly carefully planned by the party’s leaders to complete the transaction, Wednesday’s vote was even more unpredictable. Most factions allowed their member legislators to vote freely, which is for the party. It is a rare move.
Many ordinary voters are watching the party’s vote, and it is also said that party legislators must pay close attention to public opinion in the upcoming parliamentary polls for the re-election.
Last year, various factions of the ruling party held a rally around Yoshihide Suga. Yoshihide Suga, Abe’s uncharming but loyal deputy, resigned for health reasons after working for eight years. Yoshihide Suga’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and his determination to advance the Olympics have led to a sharp drop in his approval rating. He announced his resignation last month.
After a sharp drop in the number of daily cases and deaths, Japan’s coronavirus-related emergency will be lifted on Friday. Compared with many other countries, the country has been less severely hit by COVID-19, with approximately 17,500 deaths recorded in a population of 125 million, but emergency regulations have left many companies struggling while complaining that the government has little help.
On Tuesday, Yoshihide Suga said that whoever succeeds him will have enough time to keep them busy.
“I believe Japan is at a critical moment,” he said.
“The birth rate is declining and the population is aging. The security environment is changing rapidly. The new coronavirus has highlighted Japan’s lag in digitalization.
“The next prime minister should be the one who exercises power… The important thing is that this person can do his best under many different conditions.”
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