Japan Defence Minister Koizumi Says He Will Not Run in Next Year's LDP Leadership Election and Will Fully Back Takaichi
Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said on an internet programme on the evening of November 10 that if Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi runs for re-election in the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election scheduled for autumn 2027, he will not run himself and will support her fully. He thereby became another senior LDP figure to publicly back a second Takaichi term.
Koizumi reached the runoff in the 2025 LDP leadership election before losing to Takaichi. On the programme he recalled the House of Representatives election in February this year, saying the LDP had won a historic landslide and that voters had chosen Takaichi's LDP, not a narrow winner; with that level of public support, he said, fully backing the prime minister was only natural. He added that continuity in foreign and security policy also favoured the prime minister staying on.
Koizumi is currently leading work on revising Japan's three security documents, including the National Security Strategy, due to be completed by the end of this year. He said that with that work in hand he was not thinking about next year at all, and would carry out the role assigned to him under the prime minister to the full.
Before Koizumi, LDP acting secretary-general Koichi Hagiuda said on October 20 that he would support Takaichi if she sought re-election in the next leadership contest, and policy chief Takayuki Kobayashi said on October 21 that he would continue to support the Takaichi government over the coming one to two years. With Koizumi, her runoff opponent, now also declaring his support, moves inside the LDP to consolidate backing for Takaichi's re-election have become more visible.
(Source: The Yomiuri Shimbun)
Source: The Yomiuri Shimbun
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：日本防卫大臣小泉进次郎官方肖像。照片：日本防卫省，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Official portrait of Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi. Photo by Japan's Ministry of Defense, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
