Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba mentioned on Sunday he would resign, caving into ruling get together strain on him to take accountability for a collection of election losses, most just lately in July’s higher home.
Ishiba’s resignation will set off a management race in his Liberal Democratic Party, with the winner going through a parliament vote to grow to be prime minister.
Since the ruling coalition has misplaced its majorities in each chambers of parliament, the LDP president is now not assured to grow to be premier. There is a slim chance an opposition get together chief takes the helm of the world’s fourth-largest economic system.
Here is a listing of lawmakers who would possibly throw their hats within the ring:
Ruling – Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
SANAE TAKAICHI, 64
If chosen, Takaichi can be Japan’s first feminine prime minister.
A celebration veteran who has held quite a lot of roles, together with financial safety and inside affairs minister, she misplaced to Ishiba within the LDP management race in a run-off vote final 12 months.
Known for conservative positions corresponding to revising the pacifist postwar structure, Takaichi is an everyday customer to the Yasukuni shrine to honor Japan’s struggle useless, considered by some Asian neighbors as an emblem of previous militarism.
Takaichi stands out for her vocal opposition to the Bank of Japan’s rate of interest hikes and her calls to ramp up spending to spice up the delicate economic system.
SHINJIRO KOIZUMI, 44
Shinjiro Koizumi Image: Reuters/KIM KYUNG-HOON
Heir to a political dynasty with a hand in governing Japan for greater than a century, Koizumi would grow to be its youngest prime minister within the fashionable period.
Koizumi ran within the final 12 months’s get together management race, presenting himself as a reformer capable of restore public belief in a scandal-hit get together.
Unlike Takaichi, who left authorities after her defeat in that contest, the Columbia University-educated Koizumi stayed near Ishiba as his agriculture minister, overseeing a extensively publicized try to curb hovering rice costs.
In his solely different cupboard publish, as setting minister, Koizumi known as for Japan to eliminate nuclear reactors in 2019. He confronted ridicule that 12 months for remarks that local weather coverage wanted to be “cool” and “sexy”. Little is thought about his views on financial coverage, together with on the BOJ.
YOSHIMASA HAYASHI, 64
Yoshimasa Hayashi Image: Reuters/POOL
Hayashi has been Japan’s chief cupboard secretary, a pivotal job that features being prime authorities spokesperson, since December 2023 beneath then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Ishiba.
He has held quite a lot of portfolios, together with protection, overseas and agriculture minister, usually being tapped as a pinch-hitter following an incumbent’s resignation.
A fluent English speaker, Hayashi labored for buying and selling home Mitsui & Co, studied on the Harvard Kennedy School and was a staffer for U.S. Representative Stephen Neal and Senator William Roth Jr.
Hayashi ran for the LDP management race in 2012 and 2024. He has repeatedly known as for respecting the BOJ’s independence on financial coverage.
Opposition – Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan
YOSHIHIKO NODA, 68
Yoshihiko Noda, chief of the primary opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) Image: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Former Prime Minister Noda is the chief of the most important opposition group, the centre-left Constitutional Democrats.
As premier from 2011 to 2012, he labored with the LDP to push by way of laws to double Japan’s consumption tax to 10% to assist curb bulging public debt – incomes a fame as a fiscal hawk. The consumption tax was raised to 10% in 2019 for many gadgets.
In the higher home election in July, Noda reversed course and known as for a short lived reduce to the consumption tax for meals gadgets. He has repeatedly known as for phasing out the BOJ’s large stimulus.
Opposition – Democratic Party for the People
YUICHIRO TAMAKI, 56
Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the opposition Democratic Party for the People (DPP) Image: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Tamaki’s centre-right get together is among the fastest-growing in latest elections.
A former finance ministry bureaucrat, Tamaki co-founded the Democratic Party for the People in 2018 and advocates rising individuals’s take-home pay by increasing tax exemptions and slashing the consumption tax.
He helps boosting protection capabilities, stricter rules for foreigners’ land acquisition and setting up extra nuclear energy crops.
Tamaki has known as on the BOJ to be cautious about phasing out stimulus, saying it ought to wait till actual wages flip optimistic and assist underpin consumption.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.