In the lead-up to the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, the party's Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai also drew attention.
"By demonstrating that the LDP has a broad range of human resources, I think we have given the general public and the party members a sense of reassurance," Nikai said Tuesday morning in praise of the four candidates who were fiercely competing in the race that will also determine the next prime minister.
Nikai spoke at the party's headquarters in Tokyo during perhaps his last press conference as secretary general. His tenure has been the longest in the party's history, lasting for over five years. But it is considered certain that the incoming president will remove Nikai from his post.
Before the press conference, he was asked by Seiko Noda, the LDP executive acting secretary general, to support her in the election.
As he returned to his office from the press conference, he was visited by Sanae Takaichi, former internal affairs and communications minister, and later by Taro Kono, minister in charge of administrative and regulatory reforms.
Takaichi also asked Nikai to support her. Nikai encouraged her, saying, "Steadfastly do your best."
During the previous LDP presidential race held last year, Nikai's intraparty faction declared ahead of other factions its support for Yoshihide Suga, who went on to become the current prime minister. This also led to Nikai to retain his post.
This time, however, Suga declared he would not seek reelection and four candidates entered the race. This development left the Nikai faction on the eve of the election without having narrowed down a "leading candidate" to back. So the faction held a general meeting from 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Discussing how the faction would respond if no candidate received a majority in the election and it came down to a runoff of the top two candidates, opinions differed among its members. The faction thus decided to let members vote for their preferred candidate, rather than as a bloc.
Nonetheless, the faction confirmed that its members would take action in a united manner as much as possible.
The Nikai faction had endorsed the candidacy of every person in the race except for Fumio Kishida, former chairperson of the party's Policy Research Council. Kishida had spelled out his idea of limiting the terms of office of party executives, intensifying the faction's opposition to him.
As Kishida later held talks with Nikai, explaining to the secretary general that his idea did not mean removing Nikai from his post, "Kishida has also become one of our options in the race," said a senior official of the Nikai faction.
During the press conference, when Nikai was asked whom he would support in the election, he said only, "I haven't decided yet."
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