Japan's ruling party kicks off PM race with record 9 candidates

Japan may soon get its youngest leader or first woman in the nation's top job, as a record nine candidates are in the fight to succeed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

- Walter Sim Janan

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Sept 12 formally flagged off its leadership election, with voting on Sept 27. Given its majority in the Diet, as Japan's Parliament is known, the party's leader is by default the prime minister.

Unlike past contests that were mostly predictable affairs, this battle is far from clear-cut, and is expected to expose the chasm between the party's progressives and conservatives.

Pundits have named as front runners five-term lawmaker and former environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 43, as well as nine-term lawmaker and incumbent economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, 63.

Both are capable of portraying themselves as agents of change for an LDP that is keen to rehabilitate its stodgy image as a political party of middle-aged men with vested interests. The party has been further tarnished by a massive political slush funding scandal that has severely drained public trust.

If he prevails, Mr Koizumi, a political blueblood and son of former maverick prime minister Junichiro Koizumi (2001-2006), will by far be the nation's youngest leader, lowering the record held by the late Mr Shinzo Abe, who was 52 when he first took office in 2006.

A victory for Ms Takaichi, an Abe protege, would be historic for Japan given her gender.

Both have radically different social policy views, with Mr Koizumi far more progressive than Ms Takaichi.