Candidates seeking to become Japan’s next prime minister laid out their policies on Sunday in a bid to win the support of members of their ruling party.
Seven candidates are expected to contest the election to become the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president and replace Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who announced his resignation on Monday amid sagging support and troubles with a Parliament split between parties.
The September 22 party vote is considered a prelude to national elections that several LDP leaders indicated could be held in November.
Former defence minister Yuriko Koike said on Sunday that she was confident she could change Japan for the better by representing women’s viewpoints in policies.
”The resignation of Prime Minister Fukuda meant a crisis not only for the LDP but also for Japan,” Koike said on a popular talk show on TV Asahi. ”I’m confident in leading the country in the right direction, and that would be a big chance for Japan.”
Former foreign minister Taro Aso (67), who is considered the front-runner, sought support on Sunday in his home town of Fukuoka in southern Japan, while another senior candidate, Economic Minister Kaoru Yosano (70), sought support in Tokyo.
Aso, who was the first to announce his candidacy, is focusing his campaign on Japan’s troubled economy and has called the next national elections ”the most important event for now”.
Four other party members — former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba, Senior Vice-Foreign Minister Ichita Yamamoto, former science and economic minister Yasufumi Tanahashi, and Nobuteru Ishihara, the son of Tokyo’s governor — have announced their intentions to enter the race, which officially opens on Wednesday.
Recent opinion polls have showed Aso to be the clear favourite.
On Sunday, newspapers reported that nearly half of the ruling party’s registered members who are not lawmakers want Aso to be their next party leader. All LDP members can vote in the election for party leader.
The party’s hold on Parliament’s powerful Lower House all but guarantees that the next party president will be elected premier in a parliamentary vote on September 24.
The opposition, which took control of the Upper House of Parliament in elections last year, has been pushing for early Lower House polls, something media polls show a majority of Japanese support.
None of the ruling-party candidates are expected to stray dramatically from the economic and diplomatic policies that Fukuda pursued, although Aso’s nationalist stance could affect international relations. — Sapa-AP