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The race to become Japan’s next prime minister kicked off Thursday with a record nine candidates including the son of a former premier and a nationalist vying to be the country’s first woman leader.
Whoever wins the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership contest on September 27 will succeed unpopular Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, whose three-year term was tarnished by scandals while voters struggled with inflation.
The conservative LDP has governed almost uninterrupted for decades and holds a majority in parliament, meaning the winner is essentially guaranteed to become premier.
Leading the polls so far is Shinjiro Koizumi, 43, a surfing former environment minister who is better known as a son of a popular former prime minister, and veteran 67-year-old former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Also in the running are two prominent women — still a rarity in Japanese politics.
