The campaigns of the five candidates competing in the Liberal Democratic Party election are in full swing. At least two themes are very apparent in the race. One is that faction leaders and party elders appear to be regaining power in the nation's No. 1 opposition party, which lost the reigns of power after its defeat in the August 2009 Lower House election.
The other is that all the candidates are overtly promoting conservative ideas, calling for revising the war-renouncing Constitution and for exercising the right to collective defense, which has been traditionally regarded by the government as being prohibited by the Constitution. They are also showing a hawkish stance over the unfolding territorial rows over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and the Takeshima Islets in the Sea of Japan.
The LDP has promised ahead of the next Lower House elections to revise the constitution to establish an official "national defence force." There is a good possibility that the next LDP president will likely become the next prime minister because the ruling Democratic Party of Japan will likely lose many seats in the election while the LDP regains lost ground.