A presidential election was held in the

Liberal Democratic Party Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

on 28 September 2009 after the incumbent party leader and outgoing

Prime Minister of Japan The is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its ministers of state. The prime minister also serves as the commander-in-chief of the Japan Self-Defense Force ...

Tarō Asō is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2008 to 2009. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), he also served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance from 2012 to 2021. He was the longest-serving De ...

announced that he would resign after losing badly in the

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

held on 30 August 2009. Asō announced on 8 September he would resign on 16 September 2009, which he did as planned.

Candidates

In order to run in the election, a candidate must have the support of at least twenty LDP MPs. Since there are 387 LDP

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

members and 141 prefectural LDP representatives (three for each of the 47 prefectural chapters), there is a total of 528 votes. Former finance minister

Sadakazu Tanigaki is a Japanese politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1983 to 2017, as Minister of Finance from 2003 to 2006, as President of the Liberal Democratic Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2009 to 2012, as Minis ...

announced on 13 September 2009 he would stand in the election. Tanigaki had also been a candidate in the 2006 leadership election, where he came in third place behind

Shinzō Abe Shinzo Abe (21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. He was the longest-serving pri ...

and

Yasutoshi Nishimura is a Japanese politician who served as the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry from August 2022 until December 2023. Nishimura previously served as Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy from 2019 to 2021. A member of the Liberal De ...

and Tarō Kōno (son of former LDP leader

Yōhei Kōno is a Japanese politician and a former President of the Liberal Democratic Party. He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from November 2003 until August 2009, when the LDP lost its majority in the 2009 election. Kōno served as sp ...

) are the other two announced candidates. Farm minister

Shigeru Ishiba Shigeru Ishiba (born 4 February 1957) is a Japanese politician who has served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2024. He has been a member of ...

was also considered a possible candidate, but he did not stand.

Declared

Recommenders

Campaign

A public debate was held on 19 September 2009. Tanigaki was elected with 300 of 498 ballots.Sadakazu Tanigaki elected president of Japan's main opposition LDP - People's Daily Online
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Results

* 1 invalid vote

References

2009 elections in Japan Political party leadership elections in Japan Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) Indirect elections Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) leadership election {{Japan-election-stub