The Liberal Democratic Party faction led by Taro Aso intends to support Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga in the party presidential election to pick a successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, sources close to the faction said Monday.
Aso serves as both finance minister and deputy prime minister. As the faction led by LDP Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai has also begun arranging to back Suga, who reportedly plans to run for the party presidency, Suga is likely to become a key figure in the leadership race.
On Monday, Aso instructed executive members of his faction to coordinate within the faction to support Suga, according to the sources. Defense Minister Taro Kono, a member of the Aso faction, is considering running in the election, but Aso was to meet him Monday afternoon in a bid to persuade him against it.
The LDP plans to announce that the election will take place on Sept. 14, with campaigning to kick off on Sept. 8. The Party Presidential Election Administration Committee will finalize the schedule soon.
During a Monday morning meeting attended by secretaries general and secretariat chiefs of the ruling and opposition parties, Nikai expressed his intention to elect a new LDP president swiftly.
"A political vacuum should not be created, even for a moment," Nikai told reporters after the meeting. "We'll elect [Abe's] successor as soon as possible to prevent political stagnation."
The government and the ruling parties are arranging to convene an extraordinary Diet session on Sept. 17, at which a vote to designate a prime minister will be held.
With the schedule for the LDP presidential election now in sight, moves among LDP factions and groups have accelerated. Middle-ranking and younger LDP members who support Suga held a meeting Monday, and were to ask him to run later the same day.
Asked about his intentions, Suga said at a press conference Monday morning, "I want to refrain from commenting on that."
The Nikai faction, which plans to back Suga, was scheduled to hold an executive meeting on Monday afternoon.
As support for Suga grows across the party factions, LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Fumio Kishida met with Abe at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday morning. Kishida expressed his intention to run in the election and asked Abe for support, according to sources.
Kishida apparently expected Abe to urge the LDP's largest faction, led by Hiroyuki Hosoda, to throw its support behind him. The prime minister used to be a member of that faction, but Abe stopped short of mentioning specific names who could back Kishida, the sources said. The Hosoda faction was to hold a meeting to discuss its future moves.
Ahead of the meeting with Abe, Kishida also met with Mikio Aoki, a former chief cabinet secretary who has influence in the LDP's second-largest faction, led by Wataru Takeshita. Kishida was scheduled to hold talks with Takeshita on Monday afternoon.
Former LDP Secretary General Shigeru Ishiba and his faction members held a meeting at the Diet building to discuss their moves.
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