Japan’s ruling party to choose its head who will also be the new prime minister on Sept. 27

Japan’s ruling party said yesterday it will hold a vote on Sept. 27 to choose its new leader after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s surprise announcement that he will be stepping down.

The internal election must be held by the end of September, which marks the end of Kishida’s three-year term and will only include the party’s parliamentarians and its 1.1 million dues-paying members.

The winner will be the head of the Liberal Democratic Party and the country’s prime minister as the party and its smaller coalition partner control Japan’s two-chamber parliament.

Last week, Kishida — who took office in October 2021 — said he was bowing out of the race to pave the way for a new leader to form a united LDP to make a fresh start to regain public trust, badly hurt by the party›s extensive corruption scandal, causing his support ratings to dip below 20%.

Within days of the prime minister’s declaration, local media has speculated nearly a dozen possible candidates, with some already announcing their interest in leading a party desperate for public support.

A younger lawmaker, former Economic Security Minister Takayuki Kobayashi, 49, was the first to announce his candidacy Monday.