A leadership election was held in the Liberal Democratic Party

Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)

The , frequently abbreviated to LDP or , is a centre-right political party in Japan. It is one of the most consistently successful political parties in the democratic world. The LDP ruled almost continuously for nearly 54 years from its founding in 1955 until its defeat in the 2009 election...

 of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 on 22 September 2008 after the incumbent party leader and Prime Minister of Japan

Prime Minister of Japan

The is the head of government of Japan. He is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members, and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office...

 Yasuo Fukuda

Yasuo Fukuda

was the 91st Prime Minister of Japan, serving from 2007 to 2008. He was previously the longest-serving Chief Cabinet Secretary in Japanese history, serving for three and a half years under Prime Ministers Yoshirō Mori and Junichiro Koizumi....

 announced that he would resign on 1 September 2008, only 11 months after taking office on 25 September 2007 following a leadership election

Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) leadership election, 2007

A leadership election was held in the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan on 23 September 2007 after the incumbent party leader and Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe announced that he would resign on 12 September 2007. Abe had only been elected to the post slightly less than a year earlier; his...

 on 23 September 2007. Taro Aso

Taro Aso

was the 92nd Prime Minister of Japan serving from September 2008 to September 2009, and was defeated in the August 2009 election.He has served in the House of Representatives since 1979. He was Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2007, and was Secretary-General of the LDP briefly in 2007 and...

, who had lost to Fukuda in the 2007 leadership election, was widely seen as the frontrunner to replace him, and announced on 2 September 2008 he was ready to take over as party leader. Aso won the leadership election against four opponents, receiving 67% of the vote.

It was reported that Yuriko Koike

Yuriko Koike

is a Japanese politician, who was the Minister of Defense in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but resigned August 27, 2007 after only 54 days in office...

, a former defence chief who is seen as close to former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi

Junichiro Koizumi

is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics when his term in parliament ended.Widely seen as a maverick leader of the Liberal Democratic Party , he became known as an economic reformer, focusing on Japan's government debt and the...

, might stand against Aso; in that case, the LDP leadership election would be a decision between the conservative traditionalist Aso and the unorthodox reformist Koike. Economics minister Kaoru Yosano

Kaoru Yosano

is a Japanese politician. He was a member of Liberal Democratic Party , the Sunrise Party of Japan and former member of the House of Representatives, serving his ninth term in the Lower House representing Tokyo's first electoral district until his defeat in the Japanese general election, 2009...

 and former transport minister Nobuteru Ishihara

Nobuteru Ishihara

is a Japanese politician.He was born in Zushi, Kanagawa, the son of author Shintaro Ishihara . He attended Keio Gijuku High School and graduated from the literature faculty of Keio University in 1981...

, the son of the controversial right-wing nationalist governor of Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 Shintarō Ishihara

Shintaro Ishihara

is a Japanese author, actor, politician and the governor of Tokyo since 1999.- Early life and artistic career :Shintarō was born in Suma-ku, Kobe. His father Kiyoshi was an employee, later a general manager, of a shipping company. Shintarō grew up in Zushi...

, also indicated they might run, as did former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba

Shigeru Ishiba

Shigeru Ishiba is a Japanese politician. He was Minister of Defense under Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda from 2007 to 2008 and was also Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries....

, senior vice foreign minister Ichita Yamamoto

Ichita Yamamoto

is a neoconservative member of the House of Councillors in Japan. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he is also a singer, a songwriter and a composer because he used to be a member of a band of rock'n roll....

 and former science and economic minister Yasufumi Tanahashi

Yasufumi Tanahashi

is a Japanese politician. He was the Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, the Minister of State for Food Safety and the Minister of State for Information Technology in Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet....

. Campaigning began on 10 September 2008; a total of 528 people are eligible to vote (387 Diet members and 141 prefectural representatives).

To stand in the election, candidates had to gather twenty signatures from electors. Aso formally declared his candidacy on 5 September 2008, and Koike on 8 September 2008. Yosano, Ishiba and Ishihara also filed to run, while Yamamoto and Tanahashi decided not to stand for the leadership. Koizumi announced he would support and vote for Koike.

By election day, Aso had secured the votes of at least 60% of the electors and was assumed to win the election in the first round.

Aso went on to win the election by a landslide 351 votes. Yosano got 66 votes, Koike 46, Ishihara 37 and Ishiba 25. Aso was sworn in as Prime Minister on 24 September 2008. Some speculated that a general election

Next Japanese general election

The next Japanese general election is due to take place on or before Friday 30 August 2013, a barring by Constitution of Japan. It will see voting take place in all Representatives constituencies of Japan including proportional blocks, in order to appoint Members of Diet to seats in the House of...

would be called on 3 October for 26 October 2008 following the leadership election, but this failed to materialise.

Results

Candidates	Members	Party	Total
Taro Aso	134	217	351
Kaoru Yosano	2	64	36
Yuriko Koike	0	46	46
Nobuteru Ishihara	1	36	66
Shigeru Ishiba	4	21	25
Grand Total	141	384	524

• 2 invalid votes