LDP Leadership Race to Be Held Today, with Runoff Likely

The Yomiuri Shimbun

6:00 JST, October 4, 2025

The Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership race is taking place Oct. 4, to be followed by vote counting on the same day.

All five candidates who run in the election also ran in the previous leadership race last year. A runoff is highly likely, and would feature the top two finishers in the first round of voting.

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, and former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, 64, led the pack in a recent Yomiuri Shimbun poll, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, 64, in third. Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, 50, and former LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, 69, came next.

The candidates will compete for a total of 590 votes: Each of the 295 LDP lawmakers in the Diet has one vote, while the ballots of rank-and-file party members and members of LDP-affiliated bodies will be converted into 295 votes. If no candidate secures a majority in the first vote, a runoff will be held between the top two candidates. In a runoff, there would be 342 votes. The 295 Diet members would each have a vote, and each prefecture would get a vote that would go to the candidate who garners the most votes there from rank-and-file party members and members of LDP-affiliated bodies.

Results for the first round of voting are expected to be announced around 2:10 p.m. Should there be a runoff, those results are expected to be announced around 3:20 p.m.