Who could lead Japan after Shinzo Abe?

TOKYO: As Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, announces his plans to resign due to health concerns, the focus is on who could succeed the country’s longest-term prime minister, with no clear consensus yet on a candidate.

Abe said his health began to decline in the middle of last month and he did not want the disease to affect important policy decisions.

LEE: Japanese Prime Minister Abe resigns due to health problems

“I have decided to step down as prime minister,” he told a news conference, saying he was suffering from a recurrence of ulcerative colitis.

He said he would not comment on his possible successors, but said the next prime minister should continue to work on the fight against the coronavirus.

Here are details of some potential contenders to take the helm of the world’s third-largest economy.

TARO ASO

Finance Minister Aso, 79, who also serves as deputy prime minister, has been a central member of Abe’s administration. Without a clear consensus on who should succeed Abe, LDP lawmakers could elect Aso as temporary leader if Abe resigns.

In 2008, Aso was elected leader of the PLD and thus prime minister, in the hope that he could revive the fortunes of the long-ruling party. Instead, the PLD was toppled in a historic electoral defeat in 2009, languishing in opposition for the next three years.

The grandson of a former prime minister, Aso mixes political experience with a fondness for manga comics and a tendency to make mistakes.

SHIGERU ISHIBA

Ishiba, 63, a former hardline defense minister and a rare LDP critic of Abe, regularly tops polls of lawmakers whom voters want to see as the next prime minister, but is less popular with party lawmakers.

The soft-spoken security expert has also had portfolios for agriculture and the revival of local economies.

He defeated Abe in the first round of a one-party presidential election in 2012, thanks to strong grassroots support, but lost in the second round when only deputies could vote. Then, in a 2018 party leadership poll, Ishiba lost heavily to Abe.

He has criticized the Bank of Japan’s ultra-low interest rates for hurting regional banks and has called for higher spending on public works to remedy growing inequality.

KISHIDA FUME

Kishida, 63, served as Abe’s foreign minister from 2012 to 2017, but diplomacy remained primarily in the prime minister’s hands.

The low-key Hiroshima lawmaker has been widely regarded as Abe’s preferred successor, but ranks low in voter polls.

Kishida hails from one of the more moderate factions in the party and considers himself less interested in revising the pacifist Article 9 of the postwar constitution than Abe, for whom he is a prized target.

The BOJ’s hyper-easy monetary policy “cannot last forever,” Kishida has said.

TARO KONO

Defense Minister Taro Kono, 56, has a reputation for being a nonconformist, but has respected Abe’s key policies, including a tough stance on a dispute with South Korea over the history of the war.

Educated at Georgetown University and fluent in English, he previously served as Foreign Minister and Minister of Administrative Reform.

He has differentiated his conservative views from those of his father, former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, who authored a landmark 1993 apology for “comfort women,” a euphemism for women forced to work in Japanese military brothels at the time. of war.

YOSHIHIDE SUGA

Suga, 71, a self-made politician and loyal lieutenant since Abe’s troubled tenure as prime minister in 2006 and 2007, was among a gang of allies that pushed Abe to run again for the top job. in 2012.

Back in office, Abe appointed Suga as chief cabinet secretary, acting as a government spokesman, coordinating policies and keeping bureaucrats at bay.

Talks about Suga as a contender emerged in April 2019 after he revealed the new imperial-era name “Reiwa” for use in Japanese calendars after the new emperor’s enthronement.

Suga’s influence was affected somewhat by the scandals that toppled two cabinet ministers close to him last October.

SHINJIRO KOIZUMI

The name Koizumi, 39, now Minister of the Environment and son of the charismatic former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, is often mentioned as a future prime minister, but many consider him too young.

He shares some of Abe’s conservative views and has paid his respects at Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine for those killed in the war.

Koizumi has projected a reforming image based on efforts to cut Japan’s support for coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, but has generally been careful not to offend the party elders.

KATSUNOBU KATO, YASUTOSHI NISHIMURA

As Health Minister, Kato, 64, was in the limelight in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak in Japan, but then-Minister of the Economy Yasutoshi Nishimura, 57, a former trade official, emerged as the key person in virus policy.

In 2015, Kato, a father of four, received the portfolio to boost Japan’s lowest birth rate, a task that met with little success. He is a former official in the Ministry of Finance.

SEIKO NODA

Noda, 59, has made no secret of her desire to become Japan’s first female premier. A criticism of Abe, the former Home Affairs minister, who also held the portfolio for women’s empowerment, failed to endorse her to join the party’s leadership race in 2018.