Polls show Shigeru Ishiba, Sanae Takaichi and Shinji Koizumi are best placed to replace PM Fumio Kishida later this month
With just 10 days to go before Japan’s governing party elects a new leader – who will automatically become prime minister – the contest is still too close to call.
Among the frontrunners are Shigeru Ishiba, a model aircraft enthusiast and security policy wonk about to embark on his “final battle”, and Shinjiro Koizumi, the youthful, photogenic son of a former prime minister who once insisted the fight against climate change could be “sexy” and “fun”. The race has been complicated by a new poll in which ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) supporters named Sanae Takaichi, the ultra-conservative economic security minister, as their preferred choice.
