Japan's LDP leadership race heads to runoff

TOKYO -- Japan's former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi and Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi will compete in a runoff in a ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership vote on Saturday after none of the five candidates secured a majority in the first round of voting.

The winner of the party poll to succeed incumbent Shigeru Ishiba, who announced his resignation last month, is almost certain to become the country's next prime minister because the LDP remains the largest party in parliament.

LDP parliamentarians cast 295 votes in the first round of voting, while another 295 votes were allotted to rank-and-file members. Takaichi, who took the lead at 183 votes, entered the runoff vote round with Koizumi winning 164 votes.

In the runoff voting, the LDP lawmakers cast the same number of votes, but the rank-and-file members' votes were reduced to one for each of the LDP's 47 prefectural chapters.