TOKYO: Former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba is set to become Japan’s new prime minister after winning his party’s leadership contest on Friday, following a crowded race that ended in a runoff vote.
The 67-year-old takes control of the long-ruling, scandal-plagued Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and will assume command of the world’s fourth-largest economy once parliament convenes in October, due to his party’s majority in the lower house.
He was one of nine candidates and beat economic security minister Sanae Takaichi – who was vying to become Japan’s first woman leader – in the runoff, with 215 votes to 194.
A third frontrunner who didn’t make the final cut was Shinjiro Koizumi, the US-educated, charismatic son of popular former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi.
It was Ishiba’s fifth attempt to lead the party, a conservative political machine that has ruled Japan almost continuously since the party’s founding in 1955.
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