The ruling Liberal Democratic Party decided Thursday to choose a successor on Sept 23 to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who abruptly announced his resignation the previous day, while party members scrambled to field candidates.
While LDP Secretary General Taro Aso, 66, has already been deemed by many as a major contender in the run-up to the party's official acceptance of candidates Saturday, former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, 71, decided Thursday afternoon to run in the party presidential election and asked his colleagues to support his bid, party sources said.
Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, 63, has also expressed his intention to run in the race, while former Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki, 62, who ran in last year's LDP presidential race along with Abe and Aso, is also said to be considering joining the battle.
Among those figures, Fukuda and Tanigaki have stressed the importance of promoting amicable relations with Asian neighbors.
Aso, a former foreign minister known as a manga enthusiast, is expected to announce his candidacy Friday.
Executives of 13 of the LDP's 47 prefectural chapters prefer Aso as the successor to Abe, a Kyodo News poll showed Thursday.
Executives of 32 chapters, however, did not offer any specific name as an appropriate successor, saying a lineup of candidates has not yet been officially set.
LDP Diet members and the local chapters will be allocated votes in the Sept 23 party election.
Despite the trend, some LDP members are willing to support a candidate who would counter Aso.
Former LDP Secretary General Makoto Koga said he would support Fukuda, citing that Aso should "inevitably hold responsibility for the Abe administration." Aso was until recently foreign minister under Abe.
The LDP will announce Friday the formalities of the leadership election, according to a decision made Thursday afternoon by its General Council.
Other names being floated as potential candidates include former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, but Koizumi has ruled out seeking the premiership again.
Key issues in the LDP presidential election are likely to include ways to ensure refueling support by Japanese defense vessels for U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan and measures to shore up the party base after the devastating setback in the July 29 House of Councillors election, in which the ruling coalition lost its majority in the upper house.
Fielding a candidate for the LDP presidential election requires endorsement by at least 20 LDP members in the Diet. The LDP president will effectively be prime minister as the party controls the House of Representatives, which can override upper house decisions.
While a vote to choose the party's next leader was initially envisaged for Wednesday, the schedule was revised as some members called for more time.
Senior members of three LDP party factions urged Fukuda by phone earlier in the day to run in the election and Fukuda had confirmed his intention to do so, the party sources said.
A group of junior party lawmakers decided Thursday morning to hand a petition to Koizumi requesting that he assume the leadership again, but he was quoted as telling a young lawmaker, "I will not run. Look for another person."
Koizumi was also quoted as telling former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori that his not running in the election is "100%" certain, a party lawmaker said.
Mori, who is a senior member of the LDP's largest faction led by Machimura, indicated during the faction's meeting Thursday that Machimura should not file his candidacy.
"I think we should not field a candidate from the outset, but only when we have a request from other factions," he said.
Nukaga said in a meeting of his own faction that he wants to "fight to make a new Japan" and informed Mikio Aoki, a party heavyweight and former chairman of the LDP caucus in the House of Councillors, by telephone earlier in the day about his intention to run.
But Aoki did not give him a clear response, saying he needs to assess the situation in the party, party sources said. (Kyodo News)
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