(FILES) Candidates for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) presidential election (L-R) former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, former LDP secretary-general Toshimitsu Motegi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi, attend a debate hosted by the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on September 24, 2025. The photogenic son of a former premier, a hardline nationalist hoping to become Japan's first woman prime minister and an experienced, Beatles-loving moderate are leading the race to take the country's highest political post. (Photo by JIJI Press / AFP)