The race to succeed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe started informally yesterday, with several contenders announcing their plans to stand, a day after Japan’s longest-serving leader announced his resignation.
Abe said he was experiencing a recurrence of ulcerative colitis, the condition that forced him to cut short his first term in office, but that he would stay on until his successor is decided.
Exactly how the process would unfold was still unclear, with local media reporting that several options were being considered.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) could opt for a more traditional leadership election, involving lawmakers but also members of the party nationwide.
The LDP would choose Abe’s successor on about Sept. 15, Kyodo news agency reported.
However, the urgency of the situation, as well as the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, could see the party instead opt to poll only its lawmakers and regional representatives — a faster process.
A few would-be candidates have thrown their hats into the ring, including party policy chief Fumio Kishida, a mild-mannered former minister of foreign affairs considered Abe’s personal choice for successor, and former minister of defense Shigeru Ishiba, who is seen as more popular with voters, but commands less party support than some other candidates.
Japanese Minister of Finance Taro Aso, himself a former prime minister and long considered a likely successor to Abe, has announced that he would not stand.
Other possible candidates include powerful Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, viewed by many as a frontrunner, and Japanese Minister of Defense Taro Kono, a social-media-savvy former foreign minister who is seen as something of a long shot.
One woman is among those expected to stand so far: Seiko Noda, a former Cabinet minister whose chances are thought to be slim.
Whoever comes out on top, little major shift in policy is expected, analysts have said.
“Key policies — diplomacy and economic measures — won’t be changed drastically,” Shinichi Nishikawa, a professor of political science at Meiji University in Tokyo, told reporters.
“His successor could be a caretaker,” Nishikawa added, given that the LDP is to hold another leadership election in September next year, with general elections likely the following month.
Additional reporting by Reuters
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
REASSURING COMEBACK: After a demoralizing loss to Japan on Friday, the Taiwan team’s bats came alive, setting a new record with eight stolen bases in a single game Taiwan secured their first victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) yesterday, handing the Czech Republic a 14-0 trouncing at the Tokyo Dome. After being defeated in its first two Pool C games — including a demoralizing 13-0 loss to Japan on Friday — Taiwan’s bats came alive. The lineup erupted for 11 hits and scored in five of the mercy rule-shortened game’s seven innings, a sharp contrast to the four hits and 17 strikeouts recorded across Taiwan’s previous 54 at-bats. The offensive explosion was punctuated by designated hitter Stuart Fairchild’s grand slam in the top of the second inning, which extended
RSS