A leadership election was held in the Liberal Democratic Party

Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)

The , frequently abbreviated to LDP or , is a centre-right political party in Japan. It is one of the most consistently successful political parties in the democratic world. The LDP ruled almost continuously for nearly 54 years from its founding in 1955 until its defeat in the 2009 election...

 of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 on 28 September 2009 after the incumbent party leader and outgoing Prime Minister of Japan

Prime Minister of Japan

The is the head of government of Japan. He is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members, and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office...

 Tarō Asō

Taro Aso

was the 92nd Prime Minister of Japan serving from September 2008 to September 2009, and was defeated in the August 2009 election.He has served in the House of Representatives since 1979. He was Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2007, and was Secretary-General of the LDP briefly in 2007 and...

 announced that he would resign after losing badly in the general election

Japanese general election, 2009

A general election in Japan was held on August 30, 2009, for all 480 seats of the House of Representatives of Japan, the lower house of the Diet of Japan....

 held on 30 August 2009. Asō announced on 8 September he would resign on 16 September 2009, which he did as planned.

Candidates

Endorsement by at least twenty LDP lawmakers is necessary to become a candidate in the election. Since there are 387 LDP Diet

Diet of Japan

The is Japan's bicameral legislature. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives, and an upper house, called the House of Councillors. Both houses of the Diet are directly elected under a parallel voting system. In addition to passing laws, the Diet is formally...

 members and 141 prefectural LDP representatives (three for each of the 47 prefectural chapters), there is a total of 528 votes.

Former finance minister Sadakazu Tanigaki

Sadakazu Tanigaki

is a conservative Japanese politician who served as Minister of Finance from 2003 to 2006, in the cabinet of Jun'ichirō Koizumi. He also served as Minister of Construction and Transport in the cabinet of Yasuo Fukuda and is serving his ninth term as a member of the House of Representatives,...

 announced on 13 September 2009 he would stand in the election. Tanigaki had also been a candidate in the 2006 leadership election

Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) leadership election, 2006

A leadership election was held in the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan on 20 September 2006 after the incumbent party leader and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced his intention to resign, a year after he led the party to victory in a snap election. Shinzō Abe won the election,...

, were he came in third place behind Shinzō Abe

Shinzo Abe

was the 90th Prime Minister of Japan, elected by a special session of the National Diet on 26 September 2006. He was Japan's youngest post–World War II prime minister and the first born after the war. Abe served as prime minister for nearly twelve months, before resigning on 12 September 2007...

 and Tarō Asō

Taro Aso

was the 92nd Prime Minister of Japan serving from September 2008 to September 2009, and was defeated in the August 2009 election.He has served in the House of Representatives since 1979. He was Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2007, and was Secretary-General of the LDP briefly in 2007 and...

. Yasutoshi Nishimura

Yasutoshi Nishimura

is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party , a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet . A native of Akashi, Hyōgo and graduate of the University of Tokyo he joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1985, attending the University of Maryland while in the...

 and Tarō Kōno

Taro Kono

is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet . Born in Hiratsuka, Odawara, Kanagawa and graduate of Keio University, he was elected for the first time in 1996...

 (son of former LDP leader Yōhei Kōno

Yohei Kono

is a Japanese politician and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from November 2003 until August 2009, when the LDP lost its majority in the 2009 election...

) are the other two announced candidates.

Farm minister Shigeru Ishiba

Shigeru Ishiba

Shigeru Ishiba is a Japanese politician. He was Minister of Defense under Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda from 2007 to 2008 and was also Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries....

was also considered a possible candidate, but he did not stand.

Campaign

A public debate was held on 19 September 2009. Tanigaki was elected with 300 of 498 ballots.

Results

Candidates	Members	Party	Total
Sadakazu Tanigaki	120	180	300
Taro Kono	35	109	144
Yasutoshi Nishimura	43	11	54
Grand Total	198	300	498

• 1 invalid vote