Monthly Report

Nuclear power-wary Ishiba wins LDP presidential race, poised to become Japan’s next prime minister

September 27, 2024
Shigeru Ishiba
Shigeru Ishiba won in a runoff against Sanae Takaichi. (Image: Shigeru Ishiba)

Nuclear power-wary Shigeru Ishiba was elected the new president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) earlier today, September 27, 2024, and is set to become Japan’s next prime minister.

Ishiba has traditionally been reluctant about nuclear power and suggested reducing dependence on nuclear power by maximizing the use of Japan’s geothermal and small-scale hydro potential among other renewable sources.

That said, after announcing his candidacy for the presidential election, he stated that “a stable supply of energy is the lifeline of the nation” and expressed a more positive attitude toward the use of nuclear power, provided there are sufficient safety assurances. However, skeptics remain uncertain about the sincerity of his shift in position.

Ishiba emerged as the winner among nine candidates, the largest number since the current election system was established in 1972. Since no candidate secured a majority of the votes from Diet members or LDP members and party supporters, a run-off election was held between Ishiba and Sanae Takaichi, the top contender in the initial vote.

Takaichi supports the underground siting of small modular reactors (SMRs) and, in her role as Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, has been promoting nuclear fusion as a national project.

In the past, she commented that Japan’s Basic Energy Plan, which sets the renewable energy ratio at 36-38%, is overly biased toward renewable energy. She argues that such power generation mix would undermine the viability of Japanese industry and has signaled her intention to remove the phrase “[Japan] will reduce its dependence on nuclear power as much as possible” from the plan if she was elected.

With the LDP presidential election done, Ishiba will be elected the 102nd prime minister of Japan an extraordinary session of the Diet that will be convened on October 1, 2024.

His Cabinet is likely to continue the nuclear policy established by current Prime Minister Kishida in February 2023, which calls for maximizing nuclear power use, to an extent. It is unlikely, however, that he will advocate for the use of nuclear power as much as Takaichi would have.

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