SHIGERU ISHIBA

Japan's Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election candidate and Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga attends a debate ahead of the LDP's leadership election, in Tokyo Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. The party plans a vote on Sept. 14 to choose Shinzo Abe's replacement as party chief. (Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)TOKYO – Yoshihide Suga is poised to win Japan's ruling party leadership vote on Monday, virtually guaranteeing him parliamentary election as the country's next prime minister. The expected victory in the party vote by Suga, currently the chief Cabinet secretary, all but guarantees his election in a parliamentary vote because of the majority held by the Liberal Democrats' ruling coalition. The voting by nearly 400 ruling party lawmakers begins later Monday, with results expected within hours.

He said the new government will compile a revised defense policy by the end of the year. The ability to carry out preemptive strikes would be a significant shift in the defense policy Japan has followed since the end of World War II. Since taking power in 2012, Abe has expanded Japan’s defense budget and capabilities and has sought to expand its role in international peacekeeping and in the Japan-U.S. security alliance. In 2015, he adopted a new interpretation of the constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 to include the United States in its self defense in a concept of so-called collective self defense. A revision of the defense policy allowing such weapons, however, could be a challenge.

(Kim Kyung-hoon/Pool Photo via AP)TOKYO The official campaigning to lead Japan's ruling party began Tuesday with the longtime right-hand man of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe now seen as a top candidate and his likely successor to lead the government. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yosihide Suga, 71, had formally submitted his candidacy for the Liberal Democratic Party leadership last week. The winner of the in-party vote on Sept. 14 will eventually become Japans next prime minister because of the ruling blocs majority in the parliament. Suga pledged to carry out the challenges left behind by Abe, including measures on the coronavirus, the economic fallout and pursuing Japan-U.S. security alliance. Kishida, who is currently serving the party policy chief, says he seeks to be a leader who listens to the peoples voices more carefully than Abe and prioritize economic policies to address disparities.

Executives of Abes ruling Liberal Democratic Party met Tuesday and decided that the Sept. 14 vote for party leader and with it almost assuredly prime minister will be limited to lawmakers and not broader members of the party. ___FUMIO KISHIDA: Abe's foreign minister from 2012-2017, the 63-year-old Kishida had once been considered the party's preferred choice to become the next prime minister. ___SHIGERU ISHIBA: A former defense minister seen as Abes archrival within the party, the 63-year-old Ishiba is the publics favorite for the next prime minister in media surveys. Ishiba's vocal criticism of Abe, however, has hurt his popularity among ruling party lawmakers. In addition to defense minister, Ishiba has also held top ministry posts in agriculture and local revitalization.