Japan may be about to make history with its next prime minister

Japan could end up with its first female prime minister or its youngest leader in more than a century after a party leadership election on Saturday.

Japan could end up with its first female prime minister or its youngest leader in more than a century after a party leadership election on Saturday.

The governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is voting for a new party leader after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced last month that he was stepping down.

The winner is likely to become the new prime minister of Japan, a key U.S. ally and the world’s fourth-largest economy, when parliament votes in mid-October — though it is not guaranteed since the LDP-led coalition lost its majority in both houses in the past year.

Conservative nationalist Sanae Takaichi, 64, and the more moderate Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, are the front-runners among the five candidates. Yoshimasa Hayashi, 64, who is currently the Japanese government’s top spokesperson, has also surged in public opinion polls and could end up on top.

The new LDP leader will be selected by 295 lawmakers and almost 1 million rank-and-file party members, who will be represented by another 295 votes. The top two candidates are likely to then enter a runoff.