Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Ishiba as New Leader and Prime Minister

Shigeru Ishiba, the newly elected leader of Japan's ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), looks on during a press conference in Tokyo on Sept. 27, 2024. Kim Kyung/pool photo via AP

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has picked a former defense minister, Shigeru Ishiba, as its new leader and the next prime minister.

Ishiba, 67, will replace Fumio Kishida, who announced last month he would be stepping down as prime minister as a series of corruption scandals saw support for the LDP drop below 20 percent.

Nine candidates stood for the position, and Ishiba won the internal party vote, defeating Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, 63, and Shinjiro Koizumi, the 43-year-old son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

It was the fifth time that Ishiba—who has been in the Japanese Parliament since 1986 and was defense minister between 2007 and 2008—had bid for the leadership of the party.

Ishiba told a press conference on Friday that his priority would be revitalizing consumption while protecting people from rising inflation.

“I will ensure Japan emerges from deflation,” he said.

Ishiba said he would accelerate Kishida’s policies aimed at boosting household income through increases in wages.

Yen Rises After News

The yen rose on Friday, as investors welcomed Ishiba’s election.

Shotaro Mori, a senior economist with the SBI Shinsei Bank, said: “Based on Ishiba’s stance that he would expect the Bank of Japan to carry out the normalization of monetary policy at a speed that does not cool the economy, he seems to be positive about the normalization of the monetary policy and returning to a world with interest rates.

“Basically, the BOJ’s judgment on the economy and prices will be respected, and interest rates will be raised at the central bank’s discretion.”

The LDP’s popularity has plummeted this year, following a fundraising scandal linked to the party’s most powerful faction, known as the Seiwa policy group.

Kishida dismissed several cabinet ministers in December 2023.

He removed key party executives, disbanded factions criticized as the source of money-for-favor politics, and tightened political funding laws, but opinion polls suggested support for his government had still declined.

Japan must hold a general election before October 2025, and although the LDP currently has 259 of the 465 seats in the lower house of the Diet, or Parliament, Ishiba knows he must revive its popularity in the next 12 months.

Fan of Manga

Ishiba is a veteran politician with deep policy experience, but he is also known as an otaku—a follower of Japan’s popular manga and anime culture—and a collector of model trains and planes.

A video on social media showed him dressed up as Majin Buu, a character from the manga series “Dragon Ball,” in a 2018 appearance at an anime museum.

Ishiba has long been popular with voters but has previously struggled to win over the more conservative wing of the LDP.

Ishiba has proposed an Asian version of NATO as a way of resisting the rise of China’s military might.

Then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) talks to Shigeru Ishiba (L) during a plenary session at the lower house in Tokyo, Japan, on July 16, 2015. Shuji Kajiyama /AP Photo

Ishiba was a strong critic of some of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policies. In 2018, in an interview with Japan’s national daily newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, he criticized Abe—who was assassinated in 2022, after leaving office—for his tactics over the so-called Northern Territories.

The Northern Territories are four islands off the coast of Hokkaido that were given to the Soviet Union—and inherited by Russia—after the end of the war.

Abe sought to promote joint economic activities in the islands with Russia, but Ishiba said he never thought that would lead to Moscow returning them, a long-standing Japanese demand.

Ishiba supports a revision to a 19th-century civil code that requires married couples to choose one of their surnames, usually the husband’s.

Moves to change the code have stalled because of LDP opposition.

At a recent speech in Tokyo, Ishiba also criticized Japanese husbands, including himself, who rarely help with childrearing and homemaking.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.