What Kind of Lawmakers Are Supporting LDP Leadership Candidates?

Each of the Liberal Democratic Party candidates hoping to become party president in the September 27 election, and subsequently prime minister, submitted a required list of 20 nominations from national lawmakers in the party when declaring their candidacies. Here, we analyze the composition of each roster of nominators.

Although many of the factions within the LDP were dissolved after a kickback scandal, lawmakers are still associated with their former groups. Kōno Tarō found 18 of his backers among the Asō (Tarō) faction, which has resisted the pressure to disband. Hayashi Yoshimasa was the deputy in the former faction of Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, which provides 15 of his supporters. Motegi Toshimitsu secured 14 nominations from the faction he formerly led, while Takaichi Sanae also found 14 in the former Abe (Shinzō) faction. The late Prime Minister Abe supported her in the party’s 2021 contest.

By contrast, most of those who nominated Koizumi Shinjirō and Ishiba Shigeru are affiliated with no faction, although a number of Koizumi’s backers have links to former Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide. In Ishiba’s case, too, seven of his supporters come from the faction he led until it was dissolved in 2021.

Among the 180 nominators, 21 were implicated in the factions’ fundraising kickback scandal. Of these, Takaichi is backed by 13, Katō Katsunobu by 4, Motegi by 2, and Koizumi and Kamikawa Yōko by 1 each.

Of the 14 members of the former Abe faction who nominated Takaichi, 13 were implicated in the scandal, suggesting that she had little room to maneuver in selecting supporters.

There were 24 female lawmakers among those making nominations. Kamikawa, who is hoping to become Japan’s first female prime minister, had the most women backing her, with seven. Hayashi and Ishiba had no female nominators.

Hayashi, who spent 26 years as a House of Councillors lawmaker, found 10 of his nominations in the upper house, while Kobayashi Takayuki had only 2, securing the lion’s share of his nominations in the House of Representatives.

Kobayashi won support among younger lawmakers, and 8 of those nominating him have been elected four times, which is the same number as him. Including both houses, he had six nominations from first-time lawmakers.

Meanwhile, Ishiba was backed by veterans, with half of those nominating him having been elected five times or more.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)