# 2012 Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) presidential election

A presidential election was held on 26 September 2012 to elect the next president of the Liberal Democratic Party for a new 3-year term.

## Background

The leadership election was held on September 26, 2012, when Sadakazu Tanigaki's term of office expired.Three years after last general election, support for the ruling Democratic Party had been weak, and this election had attracted a lot of attention as it was expected to change power in the upcoming general election.

## Candidates

At first, it seemed to be a battle centered on the incumbent Tanigaki who showed strong desire for re-election, but as mentioned earlier, it became a presidential election to elect a leading candidate for "next prime minister," so many lawmakers showed their willingness. It was described as a different aspect from the previous factional elections, and "the decline in the power of factions was highlighted".

### Declared

| Candidate(s) | Date of birth | Current position | Party faction | Electoral district |
| Shinzo Abe | (1954-09-21)21 September 1954 (age 58) | Member of the House of Representatives (since 1993) Previous offices held Prime Minister (2006–2007) President of the Liberal Democratic Party (2006–2007) Chief Cabinet Secretary (2005–2006) | Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai (Machimura) | Yamaguchi 4th |
| Shigeru Ishiba | (1957-02-04)4 February 1957 (age 55) | Member of the House of Representatives (since 1986) Previous offices held Minister of Defense (2007–2008) Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (2008–2009) Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party Policy Research Council (2009–2011) | None | Tottori 1st |
| Nobuteru Ishihara | (1957-04-17)17 April 1957 (age 55) | Member of the House of Representatives (since 1990) Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party (since 2010) Previous offices held Minister for Regulatory Reform (2001–2003) Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (2003–2004) | Kinmirai Seiji Kenkyūkai (Yamasaki) | Tokyo 8th |
| Nobutaka Machimura | (1944-10-17)17 October 1944 (age 67) | Member of the House of Representatives (since 1983) Previous offices held Minister for Foreign Affairs (2004–2005, 2007) Chief Cabinet Secretary (2007–2008) | Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyūkai (Machimura) | Hokkaido 5th |
| Yoshimasa Hayashi | (1961-01-19)19 January 1961 (age 51) | Member of the House of Councillors (since 1995) Previous offices held Minister of Defense (2008) Minister State for Economic and Fiscal Policy (2009) | Kōchikai (Koga) | Yamaguchi at-large |

### Withdrawn

| Candidate(s) | Candidate(s) | Date of birth | Current positions | Party faction | Electoral District |
| Sadakazu Tanigaki | | (1945-03-07)7 March 1945 (age 67) | President of the Liberal Democratic Party (since 2009) Member of the House of Representatives (since 1983) Other offices Chairperson of the National Public Safety Commission (2002–2003) Minister of Finance (2003–2006) Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (2008) | Kōchikai (Koga) | Kyoto 5th |

### Recommenders

List of recommenders :
| Candidates | Shinzo Abe | Shigeru Ishiba | Nobutaka Machimura | Nobuteru Ishihara | Yoshimasa Hayashi |
| Leader of recommenders | Hakubun Shimomura | Ichirō Kamoshita | Seiko Hashimoto | Ryotaro Tanose | Koichi Kishi |
| Person in charge | Akira Amari | Hiroshi Kajiyama | Hiroyuki Hosoda | Toshimitsu Motegi | Yoichi Miyazawa |
| Recommenders | Kenya Akiba | Masatoshi Ishida | Taro Kimura | Shinji Inoue | Yasushi Kaneko |
| Recommenders | Tomomi Inada | Masazumi Gotoda | Shigeo Kitamura | Itsunori Onodera | Seigo Kitamura |
| Recommenders | Masahiro Imamura | Ken Saitō | Ryū Shionoya | Yūko Obuchi | Takuya Hirai |
| Recommenders | Taku Eto | Norihisa Tamura | Tsuyoshi Takagi | Kazuyoshi Kaneko | Teru Fukui |
| Recommenders | Katsunobu Kato | Masaaki Taira | Tsutomu Takebe | Fumio Kishida | Norio Mitsuya |
| Recommenders | Katsuyuki Kawai | Naokazu Takemoto | Yaichi Tanigawa | Tetsushi Sakamoto | Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi |
| Recommenders | Minoru Kiuchi | Keiichiro Tachibana | Hiroshi Hase | Isshu Sugawara | Yoshio Mochizuki |
| Recommenders | Genichiro Sata | Koichi Tani | Hirokazu Matsuno | Wataru Takeshita | Kozo Yamamoto |
| Recommenders | Masahiko Shibayama | Gen Nakatani | Mitsuhide Iwaki | Akira Nishino | Jiro Aichi |
| Recommenders | Yoshitaka Shindō | Keiko Nagaoka | Naoki Okada | Takeshi Noda | Yoshihiko Isozaki |
| Recommenders | Sanae Takaichi | Shunichi Yamaguchi | Yoriko Kawaguchi | Motoo Hayashi | Kuniko Inoguchi |
| Recommenders | Keiji Furuya | Taku Yamamoto | Seiji Suzuki | Katsuei Hirasawa | Yoshito Kajiya |
| Recommenders | Haruko Arimura | Hiroo Ishii | Chūichi Date | Midori Ishii | Genjiro Kaneko |
| Recommenders | Yōsuke Isozaki | Satsuki Katayama | Gaku Hasegawa | Masaharu Nakagawa | Yutaka Kumagai |
| Recommenders | Hiroshige Sekō | Kenji Kosaka | Masako Mori | Hirohiko Nakamura | Yōsuke Tsuruho |
| Recommenders | Ichiro Tsukada | Masahisa Sato | Masaaki Yamazaki | Tetsuro Nomura | Motoyuki Fujii |
| Recommenders | Shoji Nishida | Yūsuke Nakanishi | Junzo Yamamoto | Hiromi Yoshida | Seiji Matsuyama |
| Recommenders | Shinpei Matsushita | Junko Mihara | Kenta Wakabayashi | Masashi Waki | Toshiei Mizuochi |

## Results

Full result :
| Candidate | 1st Round | 1st Round | 1st Round | 1st Round | 1st Round | 1st Round | 1st Round | 1st Round | 2nd Round | 2nd Round | 2nd Round |
| Candidate | Diet members | Diet members | Party members | Party members | Party members | Total | Total | Total | Diet members | Diet members | Diet members |
| Candidate | Votes | % | Popular votes | Allocated votes | % | Votes | Votes | % | Votes | Votes | % |
| Shinzo Abe 当 | 54 | 27.41 | 140,668 | 87 | 29.00 | 141 | | 28.37 | 108 | | 54.82 |
| Shigeru Ishiba | 34 | 17.26 | 233,376 | 165 | 55.00 | 199 | | 40.04 | 89 | | 45.18 |
| Nobuteru Ishihara | 58 | 29.44 | 74,552 | 38 | 12.67 | 96 | | 19.32 | Eliminated | Eliminated | Eliminated |
| Nobutaka Machimura | 27 | 13.71 | 26,463 | 7 | 2.33 | 34 | | 6.84 | Eliminated | Eliminated | Eliminated |
| Yoshimasa Hayashi | 24 | 12.18 | 16,246 | 3 | 1.00 | 27 | | 5.43 | Eliminated | Eliminated | Eliminated |
| Total | 197 | 100.00 | 491,305 | 300 | 100.00 | 497 | | 100.00 | 197 | | 100.00 |
Ishiba overtook the other candidates to take first place, but failed to win a majority of the votes and ended up in a runoff vote with Abe, the runner-up. As a result of the runoff vote, Abe reversed Ishiba and was elected.