Who would you like to see become Japan's next prime minister after Shinzo Abe?

Somebody who isn't the child or grandchild of a politician and has grown up outside of the political bubble. Some experience of a normal working life before they became a politician would also be a plus.

I won't hold my breath though. It'll be one of the old guard as a placeholder until they feel confident enough that the younger Koizumi will toe the party line.

preferably someone who isn't part of the old guard and is more able to connect to younger generations

not an expert in Japanese politics so i don,t know many names, but one thing i know is that Japan needs someone ( younger or not, man or woman ) who,s willing to break away from the same old thinking, ready to face all those groups of people that ( in some ways ) suffocate Japanese society and those not wanting to face the ( inevitable ) future ( more diversity, gender equality, etc... )... that means byebye to all those political mummies, racist old people/nationalists, those who think that in order to be considered a hard-working person you need to sacrifice your personal life ( the use of the word “sarariman” is not a good thing imo ) , etc...

My Father In Law. After his Friday morning shochu he'd be great to see in Diet debates.

In reality, only people who are members of a select number of political families can become PM. Also people don't get to select the PM, the political party, or LDP does. So people's preference or opinions don't really matter.

They should rotate the role of PM around random blokes found in pubs. Each serving for a month. It would be an improvement!

Ishiba Shigeru

Beat Takeshi, until young Koizumi is ready.

Anyone who is not LDP and is not a member of Nippon Kaigi. Right now, Edano or the communist party sounds good

Anyone who gets onto the top of the pyramid level will turn into same old geckos, just like its colors, he/she will have different kind of lies.

I'd say to all politicians, 'Eat as much as u want, as much as u can But along the way, make good decision and built the nation very well that at least 90% people of your country be proud of their Government and their country.

Not knowing much about specific, hopeful candidates for premiership, I only point out that the ruling LDP's career development is still largely driven by seniority, not merit. Another problem is cronyism which is harder to die out. A large majority of current lawmakers (regardless of political party) are offspring or relatives of political families/houses. Without "proper" familial backgrounds, one has difficulty entering into politics. Local political system and culture have influence on leadership selection.

Aside from proven records and other critical points to check for PM, my preference is someone younger having some minority backgrounds.

The badly named Communist Party, if only they would change their name. They actually have good policy benificial to the public and business.

Definitely that guy who wants to crush NHK. He seems like he’d get the job done.

Anyone but that rat Koike

Whoever it is no one here will like them.

Though to be fair the options don’t look that impressive.

Political systems in democracies don’t change quickly, so don’t expect whomsoever it is in the future to be radically different to the past.

Osaka governor Yoshimura!

Someone not fascist but at the same time not afraid of defending their own country.

Someone who'll stand up to China, Russia and the 2 Koreas.

Someone representative of younger generations.

Someone who won't stubbornly go through with their unpopular ideas ("cough" Abenomask "cough").

Even if I had a preference it would probably be a bit vulgar to publicly express it since I'm a foreign guest in this country.

Main requirement: Don't be a quitter.

Before Prime Minister Abe we had dozens of people taking office for a year then quitting over the smallest inconvenience.

If you plan to quit, if your easily offended, can't handle pressure, willing to sign terrible deals for Japan, willing to apologies the moment Korea asks for one, then please don't take office. We tried down that road for the past 60 years and it only back fired on Japan.