CNN —Japan’s ruling party will elect its new leader Friday, and the winner will become the country’s next prime minister. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is not in the running after his surprise announcement last month that he would step down following a series of political scandals that fueled calls for him to resign. With the upcoming US presidential election, the new prime minister will navigate Japan’s relations with a new American leader at a time of growing security challenges in Asia, including an increasingly assertive China and a belligerent North Korea. Koizumi, 43, is the US-educated, charismatic son of popular former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, and could be Japan’s youngest prime minister of the post-war period. He sits on the more progressive wing of the conservative party.

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Persons: CNN —, Shinjiro Koizumi, Shigeru Ishiba, Fumio Kishida, haven’t, Kishida, “, Koizumi, ” Yu Uchiyama, Margaret Thatcher, Shinzo Abe, –, Junichiro Koizumi, acceding, Ishiba Organizations: CNN, Liberal Democratic Party, LDP, Partnership, Tokyo University, Reuters, Bank of, NATO Locations: Japan, China, Japan’s, American, Asia, North Korea, Pacific, South Korea, Bank of Japan