Explainer: How Will Japan’s Ruling Party Select the Next Prime Minister? By Reuters

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) announced on Thursday a list of nine candidates for the upcoming election on September 27 to select a successor to outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The LDP has been in power for a significant portion of the last seven decades.

Leading Contenders

Each candidate has already secured the support of at least 20 fellow LDP lawmakers, qualifying them to participate in the election. They will begin a series of public appearances, with a nationally televised debate scheduled for Saturday.

Voting Process

On September 27, the candidates and other LDP lawmakers will convene at the party headquarters in Tokyo to vote for the next president of the party, who will subsequently become the next prime minister due to the LDP’s parliamentary majority.

In the initial round of voting, all 369 LDP lawmakers will cast their votes, while an equal number of votes will be allocated to rank-and-file members based on a prior poll. During the last leadership election in 2021, the LDP had approximately 1.13 million registered members.

A candidate must obtain a simple majority to be declared the party leader. Should no candidate achieve this majority, a runoff will occur between the top two candidates. In the second round, lawmakers will again cast one vote each, but the rank-and-file representation will decrease to 47 votes, one for each prefecture in Japan.

Post-Election Scenario

Once a new LDP leader is elected, the Japanese parliament will likely reconvene in early October to appoint a new prime minister, who is expected to announce a new cabinet and assign key positions within the LDP.

The incoming prime minister may also decide to call for an early general election to seek a national mandate, with at least one prominent candidate, Shinjiro Koizumi, indicating his intention to do so. These elections could potentially take place as soon as October 27, according to media reports.