Japan Ruling Party Votes For Next PM

AFP/APP

Tokyo: Japan’s ruling party will choose the nation’s leader in a vote on Friday, with three frontrunners: the surfing son of a former prime minister, a veteran defence geek and an arch-nationalist who would be the country’s first woman premier.

A record nine candidates are in the running after the long-powerful factions of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) disbanded earlier this year over a funding scandal.

Because the conservative LDP holds a parliamentary majority, the winner is certain to become prime minister, and will likely call a snap election to shore up their mandate.

Polls indicate a toss-up between former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba, 43-year-old Shinjiro Koizumi, whose father was prime minister in the 2000s, and hawkish Sanae Takaichi, a rare prominent woman in Japanese politics.

“This is the most unpredictable that an LDP election has been in many years,” Jeffrey J. Hall, a lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies, told AFP.