With just 10 days to go before Japan’s governing party elects a new leader – who will automatically become prime minister – the contest is still too close to call.
Among the frontrunners are Shigeru Ishiba, a model aircraft enthusiast and security policy wonk about to embark on his “final battle”, and Shinjiro Koizumi, the youthful, photogenic son of a former prime minister who once insisted the fight against climate change could be “sexy” and “fun”. The race has been complicated by a new poll in which ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) supporters named Sanae Takaichi, the ultra-conservative economic security minister, as their preferred choice.
