Takaichi Wins LDP Race, Likely to Become Japan’s 1st Female PM

Tokyo, Oct. 4 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party elected former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi as its new and first female president on Saturday, making it likely that she will become the country’s first female prime minister. Takaichi, 64, beat agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, by a vote of 185 to 156 in a runoff in the party election to choose the successor to outgoing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Takaichi received 149 votes from LDP lawmakers and 36 from its 47 prefectural chapters, both surpassing Koizumi’s 145 and 11, respectively. “We added a new page in the LDP’s history,” Takaichi said in her victory speech. “We have a tough road ahead, as there are many things that we must tackle together.” Takaichi is widely expected to be elected prime minister on the first day of an extraordinary session of the Diet, scheduled to begin on Oct. 15, as the opposition camp is not expected to unite behind a single candidate, despite the LDP-Komeito coalition lacking majorities in both Diet chambers. After Ishiba won the previous LDP presidential poll in September 2024 and became prime minister, the ruling party suffered defeats in last October’s House of Representatives election and this July’s House of Councillors election. On Sept. 7, he announced his intention to step down. In the 2024 party election, Takaichi lost to Ishiba in the runoff despite receiving the most votes in the first round. Takaichi was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1993 as an independent, and joined the LDP in 1996. Her first bid to become party leader, in 2021, ended with her finishing third in the first round. In the latest LDP leadership election, none of the five candidates, also including Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, 64, former LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi, 69, and former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, 50, garnered a majority in the first round of voting. In the first round, Takaichi won 183 votes, including 119 votes from rank-and-file party members, the most among the five candidates, and 64 lawmaker votes. Koizumi came in second with 164 votes, including 80 lawmaker votes, followed by Hayashi with 134 votes, including 72 from lawmakers, Kobayashi with 59 votes, including 44, and Motegi with 49 votes, including 34. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]