Shinjiro Koizumi, a Lower House lawmaker and son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, expressed his readiness Wednesday to eventually run for president of the Liberal Democratic Party but cast aside a call to run in the next race in September.
"Now is the time for me to accumulate experience so I may throw down the gauntlet gallantly when the time comes for me to assume a post of such responsibility," he told a meeting with young members of the LDP's local chapters at the party's headquarters in Tokyo.
Koizumi was responding to one of the participants, who told him, "If you run in September's presidential race, it will provide a powerful spark" to stimulate the party.
Koizumi, director of the LDP Youth Division and who was elected to the Lower House for the first time in the 2009 general election, said, "I know I am not endowed with the abilities and experience" necessary to fill the top post.
For now, "I would like to build myself up through my duties at the Youth Division," he said. The group consists of LDP members aged 45 and younger.