Japan’s LDP Presidency Frontrunners Compete for Diet Member Votes: Ishiba, Takaichi, Koizumi Seek Support Along Former Factional Lines

The Yomiuri Shimbun

6:00 JST, September 27, 2024

The top three candidates in the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential race, who remain neck-and-neck, have been waging a fierce battle for the votes of Diet members.

Ahead of Friday’s election, the three camps of former LDP Secretary General Shigeru Ishiba, economic security minister Sanae Takaichi and former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi have been meeting with individual Diet members and making phone calls to ask for their support.

They also have been actively approaching leaders of former LDP factions in hopes of moving those voting blocs toward them and away from their rivals.

Former Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, who serves as the head of the election campaign headquarters for Takaichi, met former Prime Minister and LDP Vice President Taro Aso for about 20 minutes at the office building of the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

After the meeting, Nakasone told those around him that they had not discussed the presidential race. Within the LDP, however, speculation grew that he had asked Aso to have his faction support Takaichi.

Members of the Aso faction gave endorsements to seven presidential candidates, including faction member and digital minister Taro Kono, resulting in a split in support.

The three hope to get the Aso faction’s votes in the first round of voting, not just in a potential runoff election.

Koizumi also met with Aso in Tokyo on Tuesday, as well as visiting the office of former Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko, who is no longer a member of the LDP, to explore the possibility of securing his cooperation.

Seko is believed to still have some influence over House of Councillors lawmakers who belonged to the former faction of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

There have also been calls within the Ishiba camp to ask Aso for support. The Takaichi camp has been trying to develop closer ties with Seko.

The three candidates have been focusing on winning votes from Diet members, as they believe that getting enough votes from the lawmakers in the final stage will be the deciding factor in determining the outcome of the race. The deadline for voting by rank-and-file party members and members of affiliated groups was Thursday.

With the situation now looking certain to go to a runoff vote between the top two among Ishiba, Takaichi and Koizumi, the three are also trying to siphon expected votes away from candidates who are unlikely to make it to the runoff.

At an election campaign meeting on Tuesday, the Takaichi camp confirmed that it would seek to win over supporters from the camp of former Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato, who is in a lower position in the media polls. Her camp assigned a veteran Diet member for negotiations.

Former Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Ryota Takeda of the former Nikai faction, who is said to support Koizumi, gathered about 10 junior lawmakers from the group at a Chinese restaurant in a Tokyo hotel Wednesday, where he called on them to make every effort from the first round of voting.

“Instead of supporting candidates who won’t make it to the runoff election, they’re probably trying to show their presence by voting Koizumi from the first round,” said one of the junior lawmakers who supports another candidate.

Members of the former Nikai faction have also given endorsements to seven candidates.

The Ishiba camp is making a concerted effort to make phone calls to individual Diet members. It was confirmed at a meeting at the campaign headquarters on Tuesday that they would try hard to call all the Diet members whose numbers are saved on their mobile phones.

Ishiba was also given a phonebook listing about 100 mobile numbers, and he is continuing to make calls.

In response to the moves made by the three camps, a lawmaker from another camp expressed concern: “[The candidate I support] will lose face if the number of votes they receive from Diet members is less than their 20 endorsements.”

Another lawmaker, by contrast, said, “It’s important to sell your vote for the greatest benefit possible by getting promises on things like personnel matters.”