Tokyo: The campaign to become the next Japanese Prime Minister began on Friday, with four candidates competing for party leadership in power in a very close race.
The candidates included two women who hoped to lead a country that had never had a female minister, even though both were considered a long shot.
The race followed the announcement of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga last month that he would not run for the head of the Democratic Liberal Party in power.
Anyone who picks the party in the September 29 election will be the Prime Minister and General Election Contest that must be held at the end of November.
When LDP is expected to maintain power, its leaders tend to be people who lead the third largest economy in the world in the coming years, and will face challenges from dealing with China to deal with climate change.
While the head vaccine bluntly Kono leads public polls about who should be the next Japanese leader, the results are far from clear-cut because most of the party’s main factions do not support a candidate.
“In this race, given that the factions do not support anyone officially, it’s kind of free-for-all,” Tobias Harris, Senior Fellow for Asia at the center of American progress, told AFP.
“It’s hard to say that there really is a true front runner.” Kono’s main competition is expected to come from former Fudi Fumio Kishida, who heads a large LDP faction that will support him in the race.
Two other candidates in the race competed to become the leader of Japan’s first woman, but the two right-wing players divided Sanae Takaichi and former Minister of equality of Gender Seiko Noda was believed to be a long shot.
Voting on September 29 will be more than two rounds, if needed, with 383 parliamentarians and the same amount as the ranking member voting and the file in the first example.
But a close race makes it impossible for a candidate to secure the majority.
In that case the top two moved to the second round involving 383 parliamentarians and one party representative from each of the 47 Japanese regions.
The race is very difficult to predict because factions that often choose as blocks today mostly leave members to choose.
“Inner people will eventually make or destroy the winner,” Harris said, adding that Kono’s popular support means that he “might have the advantage, but if he has a clue, it is a very vulnerable”.
The race was divided openly after Suga, the rating of his approval was partly placed part of his government’s response, announced his resignation after a year above.
Suga served in September 2020 after the Prime Minister who served Japan, Shinzo Abe resigned for health reasons.
The term Suga has been damaged by the increasing wave of Covid infection and repeated round restrictions, with the Tokyo Olympics fail to increase its popularity.
The short term has led several people wondering whether Japan can return to the “door rolling” of the leaders seen before Abe started the second term in 2012.
Since World War II, only five politicians were hung at the Prime Minister’s office for five years or more .