Overview

• Former economic security and internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi formally announced her candidacy, pledging large state investment in AI, semiconductors and other technologies.
• She proposed tax credits combined with cash payments, higher tax-free income thresholds and scrapping the provisional gasoline levy, while rejecting a consumption tax cut.
• Her agenda includes tighter screening of foreign investment, stricter rules on visa overstayers and curbs on land purchases by nonresident foreigners.
• The field includes Shinjiro Koizumi, Yoshimasa Hayashi, Toshimitsu Motegi and Takayuki Kobayashi, while Taro Kono opted out and endorsed Koizumi.
• Official campaigning begins Monday for the Oct. 4 vote, with party heavyweights Taro Aso and Fumio Kishida seen as potential kingmakers in a possible runoff, and the winner still needing a Diet majority to become prime minister.