Surfer To 'Trump Whisperer': Who Can Become Japan's Next Prime Minister?

A photogenic political scion, a military model-maker and a hardliner hoping to become Japan's first woman prime minister are among nine candidates vying to lead the world's fourth-largest economy.

AFP gives a rundown of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers competing to win the ruling party's leadership contest -- and therefore become prime minister -- on September 27:

The surfer

Surfing, media-savvy Shinjiro Koizumi is the youthful, photogenic son of the popular former premier Junichiro Koizumi.

As environment minister, Koizumi backed greater use of renewables.

He also took paternity leave in the post, saying he wants to share parenting duties with his television presenter wife.

But this doesn't endear him to LDP elders, who might see Koizumi, 43, as too young and too lightweight to be prime minister.

Model-maker

Shigeru Ishiba is a former defence minister who is popular with voters but less so with LDP lawmakers, resulting in four failed attempts to be party leader.

The 67-year-old has questioned the Bank of Japan's maverick interest rate policy while calling for efforts to counter rural depopulation.

He likes making military models -- including one of a Soviet aircraft carrier for the visit of a Russian defence minister -- as well as trains and 1970s pop idols.

The nationalist

Sanae Takaichi is a vocal nationalist popular with the LDP's conservative wing. She was close to assassinated ex-premier Shinzo Abe, whose supporters are still powerful.

Takaichi, 63, is a regular visitor to the Yasukuni shrine to Japan's war dead -- including convicted war criminals -- so her nomination would likely rile China and South Korea.

Like Abe, Takaichi, who also ran for the leadership in 2021, backs aggressive monetary easing, active fiscal spending and nuclear power. 

But unlike her hero Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister, she played drums in a student heavy metal band.

The liberal

Taro Kono, currently minister for digital transformation, is an experienced and outspoken reformist who was defeated by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the last leadership race in 2021.

US-educated Kono, 61, has held multiple minister jobs and has 2.5 million followers on X. His views are liberal-leaning by LDP standards.

Thirteen years after the Fukushima disaster, he has softened his opposition to nuclear power to meet growing energy demands, including from AI data centres.

The diplomat

Harvard-educated former consultant and current foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa is one of two women in the running along with Takaichi.

While justice minister, Kamikawa ordered 16 executions, including that of the head of the Aum doomsday cult responsible for the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.

As Japan's top diplomat, the 71-year-old has won plaudits, including for a visit to Kyiv, but she reportedly struggled to secure the support needed to run as a candidate.

'Trump Whisperer'

With strong English, Abe's former golf partner Toshimitsu Motegi was dubbed the "Trump whisperer" for his deft handling of tricky US-Japan trade talks.

The Harvard-educated LDP secretary-general has been economy and foreign minister, and is respected for his policy knowledge.

But Motegi, 68, is reportedly feared for having a short fuse. Even Trump reportedly told Abe that he thought Motegi was "too tough".

The others

Former foreign minister and current chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former health minister Katsunobu Kato and former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi are also in the running.

Anything could happen, with the race more open this time around after most of the LDP's factions were disbanded in the wake of a funding scandal.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)