A ringside seat at 'The Match' to decide Japan's next prime minister

Gloves off as leadership race exposes tug of war between tradition and modernity

- Walter Sim

Welcome to "THE MATCH", the gloves-off clash between nine contenders vying for the post of Japan's next prime minister.

The English words, capitalised and in bold red font, take the spotlight in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) promotional collateral for its Sept 27 election, in which the party's next leader will be chosen.

The main billboard, bearing the tagline "Who will be the leader for this era?" in Japanese, includes in the background grey mugshots of former Japanese prime ministers.

It could pass off as a poster for a wrestling event, or a cinematic noir tribute to the fallen. And surprisingly, for a party that is perceived as staid and stodgy, the design was generated by artificial intelligence.

The underlying message is clear: It portends change, and there are many surprises it can pull out of the bag.

One surprise is the sheer number of contenders with their hats in the ring - a record nine, each with his or her own ideas of how to run the country.

The public has already indicated, through media surveys, their top three choices in the contest: former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba, 67, former environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 43, and Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, 63.

But the public has no direct say in the party election, although they could make their views known through the ballot box, with national elections at most 14 months away.

The LDP, again, finds itself at a turning point. Unlike in 2009 when the party was ousted from power, the opposition remains defanged and unlikely to form a government.

Trust and support are in the doldrums due to under-the-table accounting that had been going on for decades, only to finally erupt under the watch of outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.