TOKYO —

The five Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers competing to take over from outgoing Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda delivered public campaign speeches on Thursday for the first time ahead of the party’s presidential election on Sept 22. The speeches drew different reactions, with some people welcoming the multiple-candidate election as providing a good opportunity for people to think about political issues, while others criticized the LDP for turning a purely party campaign into a means of preparing for a likely general election.

The general public cannot vote in the LDP leadership election, in which the candidates will vie for an overall majority from 528 ballots—387 from LDP Diet members and 141 from the party’s prefectural representatives. If no candidate wins an overall majority, a runoff will be held between the top two candidates. The candidates who spoke at JR Shibuya Station in Tokyo are former LDP policy chief Nobuteru Ishihara, 51, former Defense Minister Yuriko Koike, 56, LDP Secretary General Taro Aso, 67, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, 51, and Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano, 70.

© 2008 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.

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6 Comments

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  DeepAir65 at 08:34 AM JST - 12th September

  If no public can vote please lock yourselves in whatever cupboard necessary and then let us know who is the new patsy in charge - pointless noise pollution

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  tkoind2 at 09:01 AM JST - 12th September

  What is the point? The party will decide anyway. LDP is LDP so there isn't any real light at the end of this process anyway.

  The only hope is that Koike is pulled by Koizumi's fans in the LDP and we can see moderate progress on some minor issues.

  If Aso wins, we will be wishing we had even the likes of Abe back soon.

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  burikko at 10:08 AM JST - 12th September

  The general public cannot vote in the LDP leadership election

  Soka Gakkai is the hidden voter that is most powerful, I guess.

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  timorborder at 10:09 AM JST - 12th September

  How can Aso, the person who received no votes the last time he ran for PM, now be the favorite? This defies belief.

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  beavis at 11:53 AM JST - 12th September

  Is Japan really considered a democracy or is the government just somewhat modeled after one. Anyway, Taro Aso's name avails the most fun.

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  gonemad at 09:04 PM JST - 12th September

  so the 5 gave public speeches, but JT doesn't know what they were talking about. Then why do you report this at all?

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