Japan’s LDP Mulls Timing, Method of Party Presidential Election to Select Ishiba’s Successor

The Yomiuri Shimbun

6:00 JST, July 25, 2025

The timing of when Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announces his resignation and when that resignation goes into effect will impact when and in what way the Liberal Democratic Party, of which he is president, will hold an election to choose his successor.

Several LDP members have called for a swift resignation announcement by Ishiba and holding of a presidential election. “The longer the prime minister stays in office, the more we will lose support for the party,” a mid-ranking LDP member said.

However, a politically quiet setting is desirable as for instance, the nation will observe the anniversary of the end of World War II on Aug. 15. Opinions are divided therefore on the specifics of the ideal schedule of events.

A proposal has been floated among LDP executive members to hold the vote in September and convene an extraordinary session of the Diet for the prime ministerial election in October. This assumes that Ishiba stays in office until the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9) scheduled for Aug. 20-22, which is the main diplomatic event in August.

Considering that the LDP-Komeito ruling coalition holds a minority in both the House of Representatives and House of Councillors, a senior LDP member said, “we need to set aside enough time to confirm that non-ruling party forces will not unite in the prime ministerial election to replace the government.”

Attention is also being paid to how the LDP presidential election will be conducted.

According to LDP regulations, the party president can be chosen at a joint plenary meeting of LDP members of both houses of the Diet “in cases of particular urgency” as the president is unable to fulfill their term. Each LDP member in the Diet can cast one vote and each prefectural chapter three votes, increasing the weight of legislators’ votes in this election format.

However, if there is sufficient time after Ishiba’s resignation announcement, there may be increasing calls for the LDP presidential election held in a “complete form” that gives party members voting parity with Diet members.

In the LDP’s presidential election in September last year, former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi came out on top in the votes cast by rank-and-file members in the first round of voting. Lawmakers and others supporting Takaichi argued that the next presidential election should be conducted in the complete form to “listen to the voices of party members, given the party’s critical situation.”

On the other hand, some LDP executives who are wary of Takaichi’s hard-line conservative stance are believed to be aiming to for a general meeting of LDP lawmakers from both houses of the Diet as the way to select the new party president.