Justice Minister Seeks Early LDP Presidential Election; Suzuki Becomes 1st Cabinet Member to Endorse Move

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:50 JST, September 6, 2025

Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki on Friday expressed his intention to submit a written request to hold an early Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, becoming the first Cabinet member to publicly endorse the move.

It is regarded as effectively calling for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is also the LDP president, to step down.

An additional four LDP prefectural chapters — Iwate, Ibaraki, Tokyo and Mie — have decided to support an extraordinary party leadership election, while the Tochigi chapter has notified the party headquarters of its stance to do so.

An extraordinary presidential election will be held if a majority of 342 individuals — 295 LDP lawmakers and 47 prefectural chapter representatives — demand it. It was believed that this would make it difficult for Cabinet members to support the move.

Suzuki stated on his blog, “It is necessary to unite and start anew from scratch to restore public trust in the party.”

Suzuki belongs to the party faction led by Taro Aso, the LDP’s supreme advisor. Aso has already made public his intention to seek an early party presidential election.

However, Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Toshiko Abe said at a press conference, “At this point, I’m not considering calling for an early presidential election.”

The LDP prefectural chapter in Tottori, where Ishiba has his electoral constituency, has also decided not to seek such an election.

Meanwhile, party executives have decided to step down from their posts one after another following LDP Secretary General Hiroshi Moriyama and other top officials. Yuko Obuchi, chairperson of the Party Organization and Campaign Headquarters, has informed the executive committee of her intention to resign, while Haruko Arimura, chairperson of the Joint Plenary Meeting of Party Members of Both Houses of the Diet, has submitted to Moriyama her resignation from the post.

About 40% support early race

A Yomiuri Shimbun survey of LDP lawmakers and prefectural chapters found that more than 40% of respondents supported holding an early party presidential election, while about 10% opposed the move as of Friday.

In the survey, 149 respondents — 134 lawmakers and 15 party prefectural chapters — were in favor of holding a party leadership race early, significantly outnumbering 43 respondents — 38 lawmakers, five prefectural chapters — who were against it.

About 40% of respondents who remained undecided or did not answer their intention hold the key to whether the number of supporters reaches a majority of 172.