(KPL/KYODO NEWS) Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa announced a last-minute bid Wednesday for the presidency of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to succeed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, aiming to become the country's first female leader.

The presidential race will take place following Kishida's announcement that he will not seek reelection as LDP leader, taking responsibility for a slush funds scandal late last year that has significantly eroded public trust.

Just a day before the start of official campaigning, Kamikawa, 71, said she has managed to secure recommendations from 20 LDP lawmakers, the requirement for running in the party's Sept. 27 presidential election.

In her first bid for the party leadership, Kamikawa said at a press conference, "Never running away from any hardships, I will build a new Japan." The seventh-term House of Representatives member became Japan's first female foreign minister in around two decades in September last year.

Among the eight other candidates who had already announced their bids for the presidential election that will determine the next prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, 63, currently serving as economic security minister, is also a woman.

Seiko Noda, 64, a former internal affairs minister, had been viewed as another potential female candidate, but she said she will not join the race and instead back former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 43, as one of his recommenders.

Industry minister Ken Saito, 65, also told reporters that he has given up on running in the presidential race.

After the LDP's election, an extraordinary parliamentary session to appoint the new prime minister is expected to be convened on Oct. 1. The schedule would allow the next leader to call a general election Oct. 27 at the earliest after dissolving the lower house.

In 2021, Kishida dissolved the lower house on Oct. 14 after being elected as LDP president on Sept. 29 and as prime minister on Oct. 4. A general election was held on Oct. 31.

KPL