Shinjiro Koizumi Officially Announces Bid for Japan’s LDP Presidency; Vows To ‘Accelerate’ Reforms of Politics, Labor Market (Update1)

The Yomiuri Shimbun

11:46 JST, September 6, 2024 (updated at 17:20 JST)

Former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi on Friday officially announced his candidacy to run in the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election, becoming the sixth LDP member to enter the race.

At a press conference in Tokyo, Koizumi, 43, expressed his intention to carry out political and regulatory reforms within a year in order to restore public confidence in the ruling party. If he becomes the next prime minister, he intends to dissolve the House of Representatives and call a general election as soon as possible to seek the public’s mandate for his reform plans.

The LDP leadership race is scheduled to be held on Sept. 27 with official campaigning to start on Thursday. The number of candidates running for the LDP presidency is now the highest it has ever been since 1972, when nominations from other members became necessary to run in an LDP presidential race.

“To make the LDP truly change, the party must elect a leader who can emphatically accelerate reform, not a leader who advocates reform,” Koizumi said at the press conference.

He stressed that he would implement specific measures for political and regulatory reforms within a year.

In political reform, Koizumi vowed to “break away from the old-fashioned LDP,” which is often mired in politics and money scandals. To that end, he called for abolishing policy activity expense funds paid by political parties to their members. He also called for disclosing the use of an allowance for research, study, public relations and accommodations, and returning the remaining allowance to the national coffers.

Regarding whether the LDP will officially support lawmakers in future elections if they were involved in a sandal related to violations of the Political Funds Control Law by party factions, Koizumi said that he would decide the matter strictly based on the opinions of local organizations and voters. He said that Diet reform will be also promoted together with the transparency of political funds and party reforms.

To pursue what he calls “regulatory reform without allowing a sanctuary,” Koizumi vowed to reform labor markets decisively. He called for encouraging the mobility of human resources by reviewing regulations on layoffs. He also called for applying employee pensions to all workers, in principle, as a step toward the abolition of so-called annual income barriers for part-time workers. He also proposed submitting to the Diet a bill that would allow married couples to select separate family names.

As for medium- to long-term policy, Koizumi stated his intention to work on constitutional revision, such as an amendment to stipulate the grounds for the Self-Defense Forces’ existence. He also said he would seek to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Koizumi was elected five times to the lower house from Kanagawa Constituency No. 11. This is his first bid for LDP presidency.

So far, former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, 49; former LDP Secretary General Shigeru Ishiba, 67; digital minister Taro Kono, 61; Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, 63; and LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, 68, have declared their bids for the party leadership.

Economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, 63, and former Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato, 68, plan to announce their candidacies on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.