Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi has pledged to carry on the work of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is Liberal Democratic Party president, as well as Ishiba’s predecessor, Fumio Kishida, if he is elected as chief of the ruling party.
“I deeply regret and feel sorry for being unable to keep Ishiba’s administration afloat,” Hayashi, 64, told a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday. “I will follow their course while adding new initiatives.”
He urged the LDP to unite under a common definition of its “conservative” platform, in an apparent appeal to party members who prefer a moderate conservative rather than more right-leaning presidential hopefuls such as former economic security ministers Takayuki Kobayashi, 50, and Sanae Takaichi, 64, who also announced her intention to run earlier on Thursday.
