The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is in the final stage of talks to recommend former Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, 79, to replace Hiroyuki Hosoda as speaker of the House of Representatives, senior LDP officials said Friday.
Nukaga, a Lower House member elected from Ibaraki Prefecture, is expected to be chosen as speaker of the Lower House in a vote at the beginning of a parliamentary session to be convened Oct. 20.
Hosoda, 79, is set to resign from his position as speaker due to poor health.
The Lower House's speaker is customarily elected from the largest party in the chamber.
Nukaga won a parliamentary seat for the first time in the 1983 Lower House election, after working as a journalist with the Sankei Shimbun daily and serving as a member of the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly. He has been elected to the Lower House a total of 13 times.
He has served as head of the Defense Agency, now the Defense Ministry, finance minister and chair of the LDP's Policy Research Council.
From 2009 to 2018, Nukaga led an LDP faction called Heisei Kenkyukai, which is now headed by LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi.
Hosoda, a Lower House member from Shimane Prefecture, became head of the chamber in November 2021, after serving in posts including chief Cabinet secretary and LDP secretary-general. He has been elected to the Lower House 11 times in total.
Hosoda was hospitalized due to heatstroke in July this year. After returning to his duties, he was hospitalized again for poor health. Hosoda has informed LDP executives of his intention to resign as Lower House speaker.
At Friday's meeting of executives of the Lower House steering committee, Hosoda formally notified both the ruling and opposition camps of his decision to step down.