When members of the Liberal Democratic Party go to the polls to elect a new president on Oct. 4, they will have a choice between relative newcomers pushing for a leadership change and political veterans touting the advantages of experience.

Either way, the party’s new chief must be able to balance working with senior party leaders while also showing the public that it is serious about reform by bringing in new blood and ideas — even if it risks riling up older members.

Among the five presidential candidates, 44-year-old agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi is the youngest.

The son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi first entered politics in 2009, taking over his father’s Lower House seat. He was environment minister between 2019 and 2021 under former prime ministers Shinzo Abe and Yoshihide Suga. He finished third out of nine candidates in last year’s presidential race.

The oldest, Toshimitsu Motegi, 69, is a former secretary general, a former economy and trade minister, and a former foreign minister. He won his first Lower House election in 1993. He finished sixth in last year’s election.

In between are former economic ministers Takayuki Kobayashi and Sanae Takaichi, 50 and 64, respectively, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, also 64.

Kobayashi is pushing hard for a younger generation of LDP leaders because he believes they have the necessary skills, especially technological ones, to enact policies that Japan needs.

He has also said he would reform the social security system so that the older generation assumes more of a burden in order to relieve the pressure on younger people.

It's a message designed to appeal to the so-called “employment ice age generation” of party members and voters in their 40s and 50s, who came of age after the collapse of Japan’s bubble economy in the early 1990s.

Kobayashi has only been a member of parliament since 2012. He has admitted his lack of experience compared to the other four candidates. In last year’s election, he finished in fifth place.

But in order to run a campaign calling for generational change, Kobayashi has turned to experienced veterans. Yasukazu Hamada, 69, a former defense minister, is serving as his election committee chair.

Hamada is a party heavyweight who served twice as Diet affairs chief, once in 2012, when the LDP was out of power, and once in 2023 under former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Like Kobayashi, Hamada represents a Lower House district in Chiba Prefecture. But he has extensive connections among LDP veterans as well as the opposition, making him a powerful ally of the younger, less experienced Kobayashi.

Similarly, Koizumi has two veterans helping him behind the scenes. One is former finance minister Katsunobu Kato, 69, his campaign chair. He also has a fellow Kanagawa lawmaker on his side — former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

Political commentator Tetsuo Suzuki says that Koizumi’s third-place finish in last year’s race, despite initially being seen as a favorite, likely prompted a change in strategy this time.

“Since Koizumi himself is still young and lacks experience, I think he's trying to create an impression that he’s the head of ‘Team Koizumi,’ a group of older, experienced veterans,” Suzuki said. “The message is that if Koizumi becomes president and prime minister, he’ll put himself at the head of a solid team, and that’s probably the reason for Kato’s appointment.”

But Kentaro Yamamoto, a political scientist at Tokyo’s Kokugakuin University, hints that Koizumi’s strategy could backfire if he’s not careful.

“If Koizumi is too considerate of the demands of other LDP members, including the veterans, he risks losing his own unique voice,” he said.

Meanwhile, Motegi, emphasizing his more than 30 years experience, has promised to make the average age of the Cabinet, currently around 65, younger by 10 years.

The other two veterans, Hayashi and Takaichi, have also spoken of the need to bring in younger members.

Hayashi has touted his years of experience and his reputation within the LDP as a reliable problem solver.

Takaichi, known for her hawkish views, may be more appealing to some older conservative party members. That, Yamamoto says, could have been the major reason she made the runoff against Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in last year’s race and may be her strategy this time around, too.