3 Candidates Fully Start LDP Leadership Election Campaigns

Tokyo, Sept. 3 (Jiji Press)--The race to pick a new Japanese ruling party president, who will certainly succeed outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, went into full swing on Thursday as three candidates launched their campaigning activities.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, 71, the continuity candidate for the Abe administration, is seen to have the advantage in the election, while Fumio Kishida, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's Policy Research Council, and former LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba, both 63, are seeking to play catch-up.

Suga met with senior officials of five party factions supporting his bid and nonaligned LDP lawmakers backing him at a hotel to discuss his strategy for the LDP leadership election, which will be held on Sept. 14.

The five factions are respectively led by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, current LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai, former Secretaries-General Hiroyuki Hosoda and Nobuteru Ishihara, and former LDP General Council Chairman Wataru Takeshita.

Suga is slated to appear in a television program of a commercial broadcaster in the afternoon to explain his plans to continue Abe's policies.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]