President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)

The president of the Liberal Democratic Party (自由民主党総裁, Jiyū-Minshutō Sōsai) is the highest position within Japan's Liberal Democratic Party. The current holder of the position is Prime Minister of Japan, Shigeru Ishiba, who was elected to the position on 27 September 2024, following his victory in the party's presidential election.^[1][2] The previous leader, Fumio Kishida announced his resignation on 14 August 2024, thereby not seeking reelection.^[3][4]

President of the Liberal Democratic Party
自由民主党総裁 (Jiyū-Minshutō Sōsai)
Logo for the Liberal Democratic Party
Incumbent Shigeru Ishiba since 27 September 2024
Liberal Democratic Party
Type	Party leader
Term length	Three years, renewable twice consecutively
Inaugural holder	Ichirō Hatoyama
Formation	5 April 1956
Deputy	Vice President Secretary-General

Due to the dominance of the LDP in Japanese politics, all twenty-four presidents except two (Yohei Kono and Sadakazu Tanigaki) have also been the prime minister of Japan.

Elections

To be a candidate for the president, one must be a LDP member of the National Diet and must receive at least 20 nominations from other LDP members of the National Diet.^[5] The LDP selects its leader via a two-round election involving both LDP members of the Diet and dues-paying party members from across Japan.^[6] In the first round, all LDP members of the Diet cast one vote while party member votes are translated proportionally into votes equaling the other half of the total ballots.^[6] If any candidate wins a majority (over 50%) of votes in the first round, that candidate is elected President.^[6]

If no candidate receives a majority of votes in the first round, a runoff is held immediately between the top two candidates.^[6] In the runoff, all Diet members vote again while the 47 prefectural chapters of the LDP get one vote each, with the result of the latter votes determined using the first round results of party members in each prefecture.^[6] The candidate who wins the most votes in the runoff is then elected President.^[6]

The party's secretary-general can decide to organise the election with the rule of the second round only.^[7]

Term limits

According to Article 81 of the LDP Constitution, the president's term of office is three years, renewable twice consecutively.^[8] Limits have fluctuated over the years since LDP's founding:

Period	Term of office	Term limits
1955–1972	2 years	Unlimited
1972–1974	3 years
1974–1978		Renewable once
1978–2003	2 years
2003–2017	3 years
2017–present		Renewable twice

Powers

According to the LDP constitution, the president "shall assume supreme responsibility for the Party, and represent and oversee the Party".^[9] The president appoints the secretary-general, members of Finance Committee, and the director of the Forward Policy Study Unit, all with the approval of the General Council. The president also appoints the chairpersons of the Party Organization Headquarters, the Public Relations Headquarters, the Policy Research Council the Election Strategy Council, and the Personnel Committee, as well as the director of the Forward Policy Study Unit,^[10] all with the approval of the General Council. The president can optionally appoint a vice president with the approval of the Party Convention.^[9]

The president convenes and presides over the work of the LDP Board, which includes other high-ranking members of the LDP.^[9] With the consent of the General Council, the president annually convenes the Party Convention.^[11] The president is ex officio the director-general of the Party's Election Strategy Headquarters, tasked with formulating the LDP's election strategies,^[12] and the chancellor of the Central Institute of Politics.^[13]

Presidents of the party

No.	President (Lifespan)	Portrait	Constituency or title	Took office	Left office	Election results	Government
							Party		Prime Minister	Term
Preceding parties: Liberal Party (1950) and Democratic Party (1954)
Interim Leadership Committee (1955–1956)
—	Ichirō Hatoyama 鳩山 一郎 (1883–1959)		Rep for Tokyo 1st	15 November 1955	5 April 1956	None		LDP	himself	1954–1956
	Bukichi Miki 三木 武吉 (1884–1956)		Rep for Kagawa 1st					LDP	Hatoyama I.	1954–1956
	Banboku Ōno 大野 伴睦 (1890–1964)		Rep for Gifu 1st
	Taketora Ogata 緒方 竹虎 (1888–1956)		Rep for Fukuoka 1st		28 January 1956 (Died in office)
	Tsuruhei Matsuno 松野 鶴平 (1883–1962)		Cou for Kumamoto	10 February 1956	5 April 1956
President (1956–present)
1	Ichirō Hatoyama 鳩山 一郎 (1883–1959)		Rep for Tokyo 1st	5 April 1956	14 December 1956	Apr. 1956 Ichirō Hatoyama – 394 Nobusuke Kishi – 4 Others – 15		LDP	himself	1954–1956
2	Tanzan Ishibashi 石橋 湛山 (1884–1973)		Rep for Shizuoka 2nd	14 December 1956	21 March 1957	Dec. 1956 1st round Nobusuke Kishi – 223 Tanzan Ishibashi – 151 Mitsujiro Ishii – 137 Dec. 1956 2nd round Tanzan Ishibashi – 258 Nobusuke Kishi – 251		LDP	himself	1956–1957
3	Nobusuke Kishi 岸 信介 (1896–1987)		Rep for Yamaguchi 1st	21 March 1957	14 July 1960	1957 Nobusuke Kishi – 471 Kenzō Matsumura – 2 Tokutaro Kitamura – 1 Mitsujirō Ishii – 1 1959 Nobusuke Kishi – 320 Kenzō Matsumura – 166 Others – 5		LDP	himself	1957–1960
4	Hayato Ikeda 池田 勇人 (1899–1965)		Rep for Hiroshima 2nd	14 July 1960	1 December 1964	1960 1st Round Hayato Ikeda – 246 Mitsujirō Ishii – 194 Aiichirō Fujiyama – 49 Others – 7 1960 2nd Round Hayato Ikeda – 302 Mitsujirō Ishii – 194 1962 Hayato Ikeda – 391 Eisaku Satō – 17 Others – 20 Jul. 1964 Hayato Ikeda – 242 Eisaku Satō – 160 Aiichirō Fujiyama – 72 Hirokichi Nadao – 1		LDP	himself	1960–1964
5	Eisaku Satō 佐藤 栄作 (1901–1975)		Rep for Yamaguchi 2nd	1 December 1964	5 July 1972	Nov. 1964 Eisaku Satō – Y Aiichirō Fujiyama – N Ichirō Kōno – N 1966 Eisaku Satō – 289 Aiichirō Fujiyama – 89 Shigesaburō Maeo – 47 Hirokichi Nadao – 11 Uichi Noda – 9 Others – 5 1968 Eisaku Satō – 249 Takeo Miki – 107 Shigesaburō Maeo – 95 Others – 25 1970 Eisaku Satō – 353 Takeo Miki – 111 Others – 3		LDP	himself	1964–1972
6	Kakuei Tanaka 田中 角榮 (1918–1993)		Rep for Niigata 3rd	5 July 1972	4 December 1974	1972 Tanaka Kakuei – 282 Takeo Fukuda – 180		LDP	himself	1972–1974
7	Takeo Miki 三木 武夫 (1907–1988)		Rep for Tokushima at-large	4 December 1974	23 December 1976	1974 Takeo Miki – Y Takeo Fukuda – N Masayoshi Ōhira – N Yasuhiro Nakasone – N		LDP	himself	1974–1976
8	Takeo Fukuda 福田 赳夫 (1905–1995)		Rep for Gunma 3rd	23 December 1976	1 December 1978	1976 Takeo Fukuda – Y Masayoshi Ōhira – N		LDP	himself	1976–1978
9	Masayoshi Ōhira 大平 正芳 (1910–1980)		Rep for Kagawa 2nd	1 December 1978	12 June 1980 (Died in office)	1978 1st round Masayoshi Ōhira – 748 Fukuda Takeo – 638 Yasuhiro Nakasone – 93 Toshio Kōmoto – 46 1978 2nd round Unopposed		LDP	himself	1978–1980
—	Eiichi Nishimura 西村 英一 (1897–1987) Acting President		Rep for Ōita 2nd	12 June 1980	15 July 1980	Acting		LDP	(Ito M.)	1980; Acting
10	Zenkō Suzuki 鈴木 善幸 (1911–2004)		Rep for Iwate 1st	15 July 1980	25 November 1982	Jul. 1980 Zenko Suzuki – Y Kiichi Miyazawa – N Yasuhiro Nakasone – N Toshio Kōmoto – N Nov. 1980 Unopposed		LDP	himself	1980–1982
11	Yasuhiro Nakasone 中曽根 康弘 (1918–2019)		Rep for Gunma 3rd	25 November 1982	31 October 1987	1982 1st Round Yasuhiro Nakasone – 57.6% (559,673) Toshio Kōmoto – 27.2% (265,078) Shintarō Abe – 8.2% (80,443) Ichirō Nakagawa – 6.8% (66,041) 1982 2nd Round Unopposed 1984 Unopposed walkover 1986 1-year extension		LDP	himself	1982–1987
12	Noboru Takeshita 竹下 登 (1924–2000)		Rep for Shimane at-large	31 October 1987	2 June 1989	1987 Noboru Takeshita – Y Shintarō Abe – N Kiichi Miyazawa – N		LDP	himself	1987–1989
13	Sōsuke Uno 宇野 宗佑 (1922–1998)		Rep for Shiga at-large	2 June 1989	8 August 1989	Jun. 1989 Sōsuke Uno – Y Masayoshi Itō – N		LDP	himself	Jun–Aug 1989
14	Toshiki Kaifu 海部 俊樹 (1931–2022)		Rep for Aichi 3rd	8 August 1989	30 October 1991	Aug. 1989 1st round Toshiki Kaifu – 279 Yoshirō Hayashi – 120 Shintarō Ishihara – 48 Aug. 1989 2nd round Unopposed		LDP	himself	1989–1991
15	Kiichi Miyazawa 宮澤 喜一 (1919–2007)		Rep for Hiroshima 3rd	31 October 1991	29 July 1993	1991 Kiichi Miyazawa – 285 Michio Wantanabe – 120 Hiroshi Mitsuzuka – 87		LDP	himself	1991–1993
16	Yōhei Kōno 河野 洋平 (born 1937)		Rep for Kanagawa 5th	29 July 1993	1 October 1995	1993 1st round Yōhei Kōno – 208 Michio Wantanabe – 159 1993 2nd round Unopposed		JNP	Hosokawa	1993–1994
								JRP	Hata	Apr–Jun 1994
								JSP	Murayama (coalition)	1994–1996
17	Ryutaro Hashimoto 橋本 龍太郎 (1937–2006)		Rep for Okayama 4th	1 October 1995	24 July 1998	1995 Ryutaro Hashimoto – 304 Junichiro Koizumi – 87 1997 Unopposed walkover
								LDP	himself	1996–1998
18	Keizō Obuchi 小渕 恵三 (1937–2000)		Rep for Gunma 5th	24 July 1998	5 April 2000	1998 Keizō Obuchi – 225 Seiroku Kajiyama – 102 Junichiro Koizumi – 84 1999 Keizō Obuchi – 350 Koichi Kato – 113 Taku Yamasaki – 51		LDP	himself	1998–2000
19	Yoshirō Mori 森 喜朗 (born 1937)		Rep for Ishikawa 2nd	5 April 2000	24 April 2001	2000 Yoshirō Mori – Y Mikio Aoki – N Masakuni Murakami – N Hiromu Nonaka – N Shizuka Kamei – N		LDP	himself	2000–2001
20	Junichiro Koizumi 小泉 純一郎 (born 1942)		Rep for Kanagawa 11th	24 April 2001	20 September 2006	2001 1st Round Junichiro Koizumi – 298 Ryutaro Hashimoto – 155 Tarō Asō – 31 2001 2nd Round Unopposed 2003 Junichiro Koizumi – 339 Shizuka Kamei – 139 Takao Fujii – 65 Masahiko Kōmura – 54		LDP	himself	2001–2006
21	Shinzo Abe 安倍 晋三 (1954–2022)		Rep for Yamaguchi 4th	20 September 2006	23 September 2007	2006 Shinzo Abe – 464 Tarō Asō – 136 Sadakazu Tanigaki – 102		LDP	himself	2006–2007
22	Yasuo Fukuda 福田 康夫 (born 1936)		Rep for Gunma 4th	23 September 2007	22 September 2008	2007 Yasuo Fukuda – 330 Tarō Asō – 197		LDP	himself	2007–2008
23	Tarō Asō 麻生 太郎 (born 1940)		Rep for Fukuoka 8th	22 September 2008	28 September 2009	2008 Tarō Asō – 351 Kaoru Yosano – 66 Yuriko Koike – 46 Nobuteru Ishihara – 37 Shigeru Ishiba – 25		LDP	himself	2008–2009
24	Sadakazu Tanigaki 谷垣 禎一 (born 1945)		Rep for Kyoto 5th	28 September 2009	26 September 2012	2009 Sadakazu Tanigaki – 300 Taro Kono – 144 Yasutoshi Nishimura – 54		DPJ	Hatoyama Y.	2009–2010
								DPJ	Kan	2010–2011
								DPJ	Noda	2011–2012
25 (21)	Shinzo Abe 安倍 晋三 (1954–2022)		Rep for Yamaguchi 4th	26 September 2012	14 September 2020	2012 1st Round Shinzo Abe – 141 Shigeru Ishiba – 199 Nobuteru Ishihara – 96 Nobutaka Machimura 34 Yoshimasa Hayashi – 27 2012 2nd Round Shinzo Abe – 108 Shigeru Ishiba – 89 2015 Unopposed walkover 2018 Shinzo Abe – 553 Shigeru Ishiba – 254
								LDP	himself	2012–2020
26	Yoshihide Suga 菅 義偉 (born 1948)		Rep for Kanagawa 2nd	14 September 2020	29 September 2021	2020 Yoshihide Suga – 377 Fumio Kishida – 89 Shigeru Ishiba – 68		LDP	himself	2020–2021
27	Fumio Kishida 岸田 文雄 (born 1957)		Rep for Hiroshima 1st	29 September 2021	27 September 2024	2021 1st Round Fumio Kishida – 256 Taro Kono – 255 Sanae Takaichi – 188 Seiko Noda – 63 2021 2nd Round Fumio Kishida – 257 Taro Kono – 170		LDP	himself	2021–2024
28	Shigeru Ishiba 石破 茂 (born 1957)		Rep for Tottori 1st	27 September 2024	Incumbent	2024 1st Round Sanae Takaichi – 181 Shigeru Ishiba – 154 Shinjirō Koizumi – 136 Yoshimasa Hayashi – 65 Takayuki Kobayashi – 60 Toshimitsu Motegi – 47 Yōko Kamikawa – 40 Taro Kono – 30 Katsunobu Katō – 22 2024 2nd Round Shigeru Ishiba – 215 Sanae Takaichi – 194		LDP	himself	2024–present

Presidential elections

Bold indicates the winners.

Date		1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	Spoilt vote[14]
5 April 1956		Ichirō Hatoyama	Nobusuke Kishi	Jōji Hayashi	Tanzan Ishibashi Mitsujirō Ishii Shūji Masutani Banboku Ōno	Ichirō Kōno Mamoru Shigemitsu Tsuruhei Matsuno Hayato Ikeda					5
		394	4	3	2	1
14 December 1956	First round	Nobusuke Kishi	Tanzan Ishibashi	Mitsujirō Ishii							0
		223	151	137
	Runoff	Tanzan Ishibashi	Nobusuke Kishi								0
		258	251
21 March 1957		Nobusuke Kishi	Kenzō Matsumura	Mitsujirō Ishii Tokutarō Kitamura							0
		471	2	1
14 January 1959		Nobusuke Kishi	Kenzō Matsumura	Banboku Ōno Shigeru Yoshida Mitsujirō Ishii Shūji Masutani Eisaku Satō							0
		320	166	1
14 July 1960	First round	Hayato Ikeda	Mitsujirō Ishii	Aiichirō Fujiyama	Kenzō Matsumura	Banboku Ōno					0
		246	196	49	5	1
	Runoff	Hayato Ikeda	Mitsujirō Ishii								0
		302	194
14 July 1962		Hayato Ikeda	Eisaku Satō	Hisato Ichimada	Nobusuke Kishi	Aiichirō Fujiyama	Shigeru Yoshida Takeo Fukuda	Hitoshi Takahashi Matsutarō Shōriki			0
		391	17	6	5	3	2	1
10 July 1964		Hayato Ikeda	Eisaku Satō	Aiichirō Fujiyama	Hirokichi Nadao						0
		242	160	72	1
1 December 1964		Eisaku Satō	One candidate (elected by Ikeda)
1 December 1966		Eisaku Satō	Aiichirō Fujiyama	Shigesaburō Maeo	Hirokichi Nadao	Uichi Noda	Zentarō Kosaka	Nobusuke Kishi Kenzō Matsumura Isamu Murakami			0
		289	89	47	11	9	2	1
27 November 1968		Eisaku Satō	Takeo Miki	Shigesaburō Maeo	Aiichirō Fujiyama						0
		249	107	95	1
29 October 1970		Eisaku Satō	Takeo Miki	Saburō Chiba Aiichirō Fujiyama Tokuma Utsunomiya							0
		353	111	1
5 July 1972	First round	Kakuei Tanaka	Takeo Fukuda	Masayoshi Ōhira	Takeo Miki						7
		156	150	101	69
	Runoff	Kakuei Tanaka	Takeo Fukuda								0
		282	190
4 December 1974		Takeo Miki	One candidate (elected by Vice-President Etsusaburō Shiina)
23 December 1976		Takeo Fukuda	One candidate (elected by discussion at the general meeting of LDP National Diet members of both houses)
26 November 1978	Primaries [15]	Masayoshi Ōhira	Takeo Fukuda	Yasuhiro Nakasone	Toshio Kōmoto						0
		748 pts	638 pts	93 pts	46 pts
	Runoff	Masayoshi Ōhira	2nd candidate withdrew
15 July 1980		Zenkō Suzuki	One candidate (elected by Vice-President Eiichi Nishimura)
27 November 1980		Zenkō Suzuki	One candidate (re-elected without voting in the leadership election due to the expiration of the term of office of Suzuki)
24 November 1982	Primaries [16]	Yasuhiro Nakasone	Toshio Kōmoto	Shintaro Abe	Ichiro Nakagawa						0
		559673	265078	80443	66041
	Runoff	Yasuhiro Nakasone	2nd and below candidates withdrew
30 October 1984		Yasuhiro Nakasone	One candidate (re-elected without voting in the leadership election due to the expiration of the term of office of Nakasone)
11 September 1986		Yasuhiro Nakasone	Extension of term of office by one year (Unanimously re-elected Nakasone's term of office at the general meeting of LDP National Diet members of both houses)
31 October 1987		Noboru Takeshita	One candidate (elected by Nakasone)
2 June 1989		Sōsuke Uno	One candidate (elected by Takeshita)
8 August 1989		Toshiki Kaifu	Yoshiro Hayashi	Shintaro Ishihara							0
		279	120	48
31 October 1989		Toshiki Kaifu	One candidate (re-elected without voting in the leadership election due to the expiration of the term of office of Kaifu)
27 October 1991		Kiichi Miyazawa	Michio Watanabe	Hiroshi Mitsuzuka							0
		285	120	87
30 July 1993		Yōhei Kōno	Michio Watanabe								0
		208	159
30 September 1993		Yōhei Kōno	One candidate (re-elected without voting in the leadership election due to the expiration of the term of office of Kōno)
22 September 1995		Ryutaro Hashimoto	Junichiro Koizumi								0
		304	87
11 September 1997		Ryutaro Hashimoto	One candidate (re-elected without voting in the leadership election due to the expiration of the term of office of Hashimoto)
24 July 1998		Keizō Obuchi	Seiroku Kajiyama	Junichiro Koizumi							0
		225	102	84
21 September 1999		Keizō Obuchi	Koichi Kato	Taku Yamasaki							0
		350	113	51
5 April 2000		Yoshirō Mori	One candidate (elected by discussion at the general meeting of LDP National Diet members of both houses)
24 April 2001		Junichiro Koizumi	Ryutaro Hashimoto	Tarō Asō	(Shizuka Kamei withdrew after the ballot counting)						3
		298	155	31
10 August 2001		Junichiro Koizumi	One candidate (re-elected without voting in the leadership election due to the expiration of the term of office of Koizumi)
20 September 2003		Junichiro Koizumi	Shizuka Kamei	Takao Fujii	Masahiko Kōmura						0
		399	139	65	54
20 September 2006 (Detail)		Shinzo Abe	Tarō Asō	Sadakazu Tanigaki							1
		464	136	102
23 September 2007 (Detail)		Yasuo Fukuda	Tarō Asō								1
		330	197
22 September 2008 (Detail)		Tarō Asō	Kaoru Yosano	Yuriko Koike	Nobuteru Ishihara	Shigeru Ishiba					2
		351	66	46	37	25
28 September 2009 (Detail)		Sadakazu Tanigaki	Taro Kono	Yasutoshi Nishimura							1
		300	144	54
26 September 2012 (Detail)	First round	Shigeru Ishiba	Shinzo Abe	Nobuteru Ishihara	Nobutaka Machimura	Yoshimasa Hayashi					1
		199	141	96	34	27
	Runoff	Shinzo Abe	Shigeru Ishiba								1
		108	89
8 September 2015 (Detail)		Shinzo Abe	One candidate (re-elected without voting in the leadership election due to the expiration of the term of office of Abe)
20 September 2018 (Detail)		Shinzo Abe	Shigeru Ishiba								3
		553	254
14 September 2020 (Detail)		Yoshihide Suga	Fumio Kishida	Shigeru Ishiba							0
		377	89	68
29 September 2021 (Detail)	First round	Fumio Kishida	Taro Kono	Sanae Takaichi	Seiko Noda						1
		256	255	188	63
	Runoff	Fumio Kishida	Taro Kono								1
		257	170
27 September 2024 (Detail)	First round	Sanae Takaichi	Shigeru Ishiba	Shinjirō Koizumi	Yoshimasa Hayashi	Takayuki Kobayashi	Toshimitsu Motegi	Yōko Kamikawa	Taro Kono	Katsunobu Katō	1
		181	154	136	65	60	47	40	30	22
	Runoff	Shigeru Ishiba	Sanae Takaichi
		215	194

Timeline