Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi has voiced his intention to run in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential race, sources close to him said Friday, about a week after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced he will step down.

Koizumi, who reportedly persuaded Ishiba to resign, has recently taken the spotlight with efforts to address surging rice prices in Japan. The 44-year-old son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi also ran in the LDP's leadership race last year.

So far, former Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi have announced their candidacies for the race.

Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, who is seeking to become Japan's first female prime minister, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi also plan to run in the Oct 4 contest, party sources said. All ran for the LDP presidency in September 2024.

Some political commentators say the presidential election could come down to a two-horse race between Koizumi and Takaichi, a conservative lawmaker who shares the hawkish views of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in 2022.

Koizumi, a sixth-term House of Representatives lawmaker, is arranging to hold a press conference next week to announce his candidacy after consulting supporters on Saturday, the sources close to him said.

At a ministerial press conference on Friday, Koizumi said he would "make a final decision by listening to the voices" of people in his constituency, adding the LDP, in power almost continuously since 1955, is in a "crisis."

In the previous LDP leadership race, Koizumi garnered more support from lawmakers than any of the other eight candidates but failed to advance to the runoff after coming third in total ballots, including rank-and-file members.

Koizumi assumed the post of agriculture, forestry and fisheries minister in May after his predecessor, Taku Eto, resigned over a gaffe about gifts of rice from supporters, which undermined public support for the LDP.

Takaichi, labeled a "right-wing" nationalist by Chinese state-run media for her repeated visits to the war-linked Yasukuni shrine, was defeated by Ishiba in last year's runoff, although she received more votes in the first round.

The LDP contest was originally scheduled for 2027, at the end of Ishiba's three-year term. He announced Sunday he will resign to take responsibility for the ruling coalition's failure to retain control of the House of Councillors in an election on July 20.

The ruling coalition of the LDP and its junior partner, the Komeito party, had already lost its majority in the more powerful lower house in a general election shortly after Ishiba took office in October 2024.

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