Foreign Minister Kamikawa Ranked 3rd in List of LDP Leader Hopefuls; Former LDP Secretary General Takes 1st Place

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:19 JST, March 25, 2024 

Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa was ranked third in list of politicians in a nationwide public opinion survey conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun from Friday to Sunday. Respondents were asked to select who they thought would be suitable to become the next president of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Former LDP Secretary General Shigeru Ishiba was ranked top with 22% of respondents favoring him. Former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi placed ranked second with 15%.

Kamikawa was favored by 9% of respondents. In the same question in the previous survey in February, she was ranked fourth.

Minister for Digital Transformation Taro Kono was fourth with 8% in this month’s survey.

Ahead of the expiration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s term as LDP president in September, the survey asked respondents to choose from among 11 LDP lawmakers.

Kishida was ranked fifth with 7% and former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was sixth with 6%.

Sanae Takaichi, minister in charge of economic security, was favored by 5%, and Yuko Obuchi, chairperson of the LDP Election Strategy Committee, was chosen by 2%.

LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, former Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Seiko Noda and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi were chosen by 1% each.

Fifteen percent of respondents said there were none whom they favor.

Among LDP supporters alone, Kishida was chosen by 15%, up 6 points from the previous survey. He ranked third after Ishiba with 22% and Koizumi with 16%. Kamikawa was chosen by 13% and Kono by 8%.