# 2020 Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) presidential election

2020 Liberal Democratic Party leadership election|

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| **14 September 2020** |

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535 delegates in total 268 or more delegate votes needed to win |
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| Candidate | **Yoshihide Suga** | Fumio Kishida | Shigeru Ishiba |
| LDP MPs | **288** | 79 | 26 |
| Prefectural votes | **89** | 10 | 42 |
| Total | **377** | 89 | 68 |

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Election results |
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| **Presidentbefore election**
Shinzo Abe  | **ElectedPresident**
Yoshihide Suga  |

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The **2020 Liberal Democratic Party of Japan leadership election** was held on 14 September 2020 to elect the next president of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. This happened three days before the National Diet held a session to elect the new Prime Minister.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga easily won the election. As the Liberal Democratic Party currently controls a majority in the National Diet as a member of the governing coalition, Suga is also expected to succeed Abe as Japan's prime minister.

## Background

It was supposed to be held in September 2021, however incumbent party president and the longest-serving Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, suddenly resigned on 28 August 2020, because of health reasons.

The winner of the race filled in for the remainder of Abe's term as president. As the Liberal Democratic Party controlled a majority in the National Diet, the winner of the race would also replace Abe as Japan's prime minister.

## Candidates

### Declared

* Shigeru Ishiba, runner-up in the 2012 and 2018 leadership elections; member of the House of Representatives for Tottori 1st district; former Minister for Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy (2014–2016) and Defense Minister (2007–2008).
* Fumio Kishida, current chair of the LDP Policy Research Council, member of the House of Representatives for Hiroshima 1st district; former Minister of Foreign Affairs (2012–2017), former acting Defense Minister (2017).
* Yoshihide Suga, Chief Cabinet Secretary, member of the House of Representatives for Kanagawa 2nd district; former Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications (2006–2007).

* Former Defense Minister
(2007–2008)
**Shigeru Ishiba Former Foreign Affairs Minister
(2012–2017)
**Fumio Kishida Chief Cabinet Secretary
(2012–present)
**Yoshihide Suga**

## Polling

| Polling firm/link | Date of polling | Sample size | Fumio Kishida | Shinjiro Koizumi | Tarō Kōno | Shigeru Ishiba | Hakubun Shimomura | Yoshihide Suga | Undecided/NOTA | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Mainichi Shimbun/SSRC | 9 September 2020 | Unknown | – | – | – | 36% | – | **44%** | **20%** |
| Asahi Shimbun Archived 2020-09-11 at the Wayback Machine | 2-3 September 2020 | 1,130 | 5% | – | – | 25% | – | **38%** | **32%** |  |
| Nikkei/TV Tokyo | 29-30 August 2020 | Unknown | 6% | 14% | 15% | **28%** | – | 11% | **26%** |  |
| Kyodo News Archived 2020-10-19 at the Wayback Machine | 28-30 August 2020 | 1,050 | 7.5% | 10.1% | 13.6% | **34.3%** | – | 14.3% | **20.2%** |  |

## Results

Results | Candidate | Diet members | Prefectural representatives | Total points |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Total votes | % |
|  | Yoshihide Suga | **288** | **73.1%** | **89** | **63.1%** | **377** | **70.5%** |
|  | Fumio Kishida | 79 | 20.1% | 10 | 7.1% | 89 | 16.6% |
|  | Shigeru Ishiba | 26 | 6.6% | 42 | 29.8% | 68 | 12.7% |
| Total | 394 | 100% | 141 | 100% | 535 | 100% |