It now looks all but certain that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be running uncontested for another three-year term as president of the Liberal Democratic Party as nobody else has emerged in the party race in September. Abe's reelection has effectively been deemed secure since he returned the LDP's ruling coalition with Komeito to a two-thirds majority in the Lower House in the December general election. Still, the lack of competition within the LDP is deplorable.

In the LDP's nearly 60-year history, only two incumbent presidents — Yasuhiro Nakasone in 1984 and Ryutaro Hashimoto in 1997 — won uncontested second terms after completing their first full terms. It would be unfortunate if the dearth of any challengers to the current leadership is due to a lack of diversity in views and policies in the LDP ranks — an undesirable state for any political party.

The leaders of all of the LDP's factions, including the largest one from which Abe hails, have expressed their endorsement of the prime minister in the party presidential race, which is set to officially open Sept. 8 but could end the same day if no other candidates emerge instead of holding a vote on Sept. 20.

Shigeru Ishiba, minister in charge of regional revitalization, who was runner-up to Abe in the LDP race three years ago, reportedly indicated to his colleagues that he would not run. Seiko Noda, a former chairwoman of the party's General Council, who has also been viewed as a prospective contender, is said to be cautious, although she insists that the race should not end without a vote.

The LDP elects its leader through the votes of its Diet members and ballots allocated to party members across the country. In the 2012 race, Ishiba won the most votes in the first round by securing a majority of the local ballots, but was defeated by Abe in the runoff vote by the Diet members alone, and Abe returned to the helm of government when the LDP ousted the Democratic Party of Japan from power in the subsequent Lower House election. Changes in the party's rules since then give the Diet members and local members the same weight of votes in choosing the leader, starting in the upcoming race — if a vote takes place at all.

Just as the LDP-Komeito alliance dwarfed all other parties, Abe has dwarfed all other LDP leaders over the last three years. His appointment of Ishiba, then the party's secretary general, to the Cabinet position in a reshuffle a year ago was deemed a part of his effort to stifle the seeds of challenge to his leadership when his three-year term comes up this year.

Challengers to Abe would practically have no chance of upsetting the incumbent, who led the party to landslide wins in all the last three national elections since 2012. The unanimous support of Abe's reelection by the faction leaders effectively makes it difficult for prospective contenders — including Noda — to secure the minimum number of colleagues necessary to endorse their candidacy in the race.

The LDP race at a time when the security legislation proposed by the Abe administration is at a crucial stage in its deliberation in the Upper House. The party elders may have wanted to avoid the appearance of Abe's leadership being challenged just as the coalition scrambles to push the controversial legislation through the Diet before the current session closes on Sept. 27. Or they might have tried to avoid having members of their groups being given the cold-shoulder in the anticipated reshuffle of Cabinet positions and LDP executive positions by withholding their support for Abe's reelection.

Still, the dearth of any challenge to Abe's leadership from within the LDP looks a bit odd given that many of his key policies are being questioned by the public. Abe's Cabinet approval ratings — though still relatively high for a prime minister in office for nearly three years — plunged sharply in recent months and were topped by disapproval rates in many opinion polls as the ruling coalition rammed the security legislation — which lifts Japan's self-imposed ban on collective self-defense and significantly expands the scope of the Self-Defense Forces' overseas missions — through the Lower House. Opposition to the security bills and the administration's push to restart nuclear power plants idled in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster remains strong. The economy is still a mixed picture after nearly three years of the prime minister's much-touted "Abenomics" policy, with GDP growth unsteady and consumer spending still shaky despite robust corporate earnings and share prices.

The LDP used to be a party of lawmakers whose diverse views covered a broad policy spectrum. Despite frequent criticism of factional politics and intra-party power struggles, various forces within the LDP challenging and keeping in check the party leadership had the effect of balancing the party's overall policy direction. Since Abe returned to the party's helm in 2012, dissent to his policies from among the party's ranks seems to rarely come to the fore.

Are LDP lawmakers rallying behind Abe because they wholehearted support his administration's policies? A party leadership race provides an opportunity for candidates to seek a mandate from their colleagues in the Diet and other party members by discussing their policy agenda. The apparent lack of competition in the LDP race makes it hard to guess.