Overview
- The party formally accepted filings on Friday, August 7, 2026, from incumbent Yuichiro Tamaki and 30-year-old Diet member Mikihiko Hashimoto, starting a campaign that will run to a September 6 ballot.
- The winner will be decided under a 159-point system that gives each of the party’s 53 Diet members one point and allocates 53 points each to local assembly members and to party members and supporters using the D'Hondt method.
- Tamaki, who has led the National Democratic Party since its founding in September 2020, is widely viewed as the favorite to win a third term.
- Hashimoto is running as a younger alternative; he is a two-term lawmaker first elected in 2024, a former Air Self-Defense Force member, and currently serves as the party’s deputy policy chief.
- The party has scheduled a formal announcement on August 22 and the vote on September 6, and it expects the campaign debates to be used to boost public visibility and attempt a recovery in party support.