Jabarkan "Post-Koizumi" dari Junichiro Koizumi dalam bahasa sunda

Koizumi has announced that he will step down from office sometime in 2006, per LDP rules, and will not personally choose a successor as many LDP prime ministers have in the past. This has led to widespréad media speculation about who will be his successor, an issue popularly referred to as .

The four léading candidates to replace Koizumi are Shinzo Abe, Yasuo Fukuda, Sadakazu Tanigaki, and Taro Aso. Faction léader Taro Kono has also expressed an interest in standing in the party elections. However, none of the five have officially declared their candidacies. Formal declarations are not expected until July 2006 at the éarliest. In a June poll of 403 LDP lawmakers, Abe had the backing of 130, followed by Fukuda with 30.