Shigeru Ishiba to become Japan’s next prime minister after ruling party vote

TOKYO (Reuters) – Former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba won the race to lead Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Friday and replace incumbent prime minister Fumio Kishida as the country’s next leader.

The winner of the LDP’s leadership election is all but assured to become prime minister given the party’s control over parliament’s powerful lower chamber.

Security maven Ishiba beat Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi in a run-off held after none of the nine candidates won a majority in the first round of voting.

(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyma, Kiyoshi Takenaka, Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)