With Fumio Kishida having won the Liberal Democratic Party presidential race thanks to the backing of many veterans, younger party members who preferred his main rival Taro Kono will have to wait until next time to get their chosen candidate into office. For the moment, the LDP and the nation are looking ahead to a new government under Kishida as prime minister and a general election, which is now just weeks away.
In the first round of the presidential election Wednesday, LDP chapters in Kyoto, Hyogo and Osaka prefectures went for Kono, not Kishida, who finished second. In Nara, Kishida finished third, behind Takaichi — Nara is her home prefecture — and Kono, who also won all of Kansai in the decisive second round.
But the Kansai prefectural vote tallies aside, much of the Kansai corporate community, like it’s Tokyo-based cousin the Japan Business Federation, better known as Keidanren, preferred Kishida to Kono. Partially, this was due to his energy policy — the presumptive prime minister is a more enthusiastic supporter of nuclear power than Kono.