Japan to formally elect new prime minister on October 1

Tokyo: Japan s new prime minister will be formally elected by parliament on October 1 following next week s leadership contest, a ruling party officia...

Tokyo: Japan's new prime minister will be formally elected by parliament on October 1 following next week's leadership contest, a ruling party official said Wednesday.

Polls indicate that three frontrunners are emerging among the nine candidates to succeed Fumio Kishida as head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the September 27 internal vote.

They are conservative economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, 63, former LDP secretary general Shigeru Ishiba, 67, and Shinjiro Koizumi, 43, son of former premier Junichiro Koizumi.

The conservative LDP -- which has governed almost uninterrupted for decades -- holds a majority in parliament, meaning the winner of the party election is essentially guaranteed to become premier.

Yasukazu Hamada, a LDP lawmaker in charge of parliament affairs, told his opposition counterpart that the party "plans to convene a parliament session on October 1" to elect the new prime minister, a LDP official told AFP.