Overview

• Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi formally declared his candidacy, pledging wage-led growth, a rapid economic package with a supplementary budget, gasoline tax cuts, higher household tax exemptions and a push to lift average pay by 1 million yen by fiscal 2030.
• Sanae Takaichi officially launched her bid with a fiscally expansionary agenda featuring major state investment in AI, semiconductors and batteries, a tax credit with cash payments, abolishing the provisional gasoline tax rate, tighter foreign investment screening, restarting nuclear plants and creating a national intelligence agency.
• The field stands at five with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi also running, with campaigning to start Monday and voting set for Oct. 4 with a possible runoff.
• Senior figures Taro Aso and Fumio Kishida are being courted as potential kingmakers whose influence could prove decisive if the contest goes to a second round.
• The winner will need to secure broader Diet backing to become prime minister because the LDP-Komeito bloc no longer holds working majorities following recent election setbacks.