By DPA
Tokyo : The race to replace Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is narrowing with Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga withdrawing Friday.
The LDP announced Thursday that party elections will be held Sep 23 after Abe abruptly ended his year-long premiership Wednesday and was hospitalised due to a gastrointestinal disorder caused by stress and fatigue.
Nukaga, who ambitiously decided Thursday he was willing to “make a new Japan”, has thrown his support behind former chief cabinet secretary Yasuo Fukuda.
Fukuda, 71, told LDP members that he was ready to take charge and that his emphasis would be on Asian diplomacy and solving income disparity in Japan.
“I am encouraged and I felt a stronger need than before to do it. Believing that it is a time of emergency, we must move politics forward,” Fukuda was quoted as saying Friday.
LDP Secretary General Taro Aso, 66, is expected to officially announce his candidacy later Friday, for the second time. Aso, a former foreign minister, ran against Abe last July.
Abe said he stepped down as prime minister because he had failed to win sufficient political support to continue the Japanese military’s refuelling operations for allied ships involved in the conflict in Afghanistan.
LDP and its coalition the New Komeito lost the majority in Japan’s upper house, the House of Councillors, in July’s parliamentary election, making it difficult for them to pass the controversial bill to extend the anti-terrorism mission.
The winner of the Sep 23 LDP presidential election would effectively be prime minister as the party controls the House of Representatives, which can override upper house decisions.