<figure id="attachment_393043" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1477px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-393043"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b939a2e8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/b17b18b0028cf7516988e41fbaa20f77.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-393043" class="wp-caption-text">Mr. Ishiba won the presidential election by winning a fierce competition among nine candidates, the largest number in history. Behind this success was the presence of a winning rice dish.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Shigeru Ishiba, 67, former secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, won the 15-day LDP presidential election with a record number of nine candidates. Despite being ridiculed as &#8220;bossy&#8221; and &#8220;stingy,&#8221; he finally won the election on his fifth attempt.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Unity and boxed lunches.&#8221;</span></p>
<p>In the past, it was customary for the various factions of the Liberal Democratic Party to meet every Thursday for lunch together. Eating the same food while discussing it together was considered a sign of unity and a symbol of factional culture.</p>
<p>Although the factions were dissolved in this presidential election, the custom remained, and for 15 days, each Diet member and his or her secretary gathered at noon at the respective election headquarters to have lunch together. For example, in the camp of Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa (71), the lunchboxes were usually priced at about 1,000 yen, but in between, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Takeaki Matsumoto (65), who served as a nominee, offered eel lunchboxes, and Minister of Education Masahito Moriyama (70) offered chirashi-zushi to the members, providing a refreshing break during the grueling election period.</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> The Ishiba camp&#8217;s choice of the &#8220;first winning meal</span></h3>
<p>In the midst of all this, the Ishiba campaign had lunch in Room 1118 of the Second House of Representatives, which served as their campaign office, and during the final stages of the election campaign, there were cries of &#8220;Ringer Hut again!</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> It&#8217;s Ringer Hut again.</span></p>
<p>The first was Ringer Hut&#8217;s &#8220;Sara Udon&#8221; (850 yen), a healthful dish that included seven kinds of Japanese vegetables in one dish. However, after being served this dish four times during the 15 days of lunches, the staffer said that he had grown weary of it. A campaign staffer said with a half smile, &#8220;I know Mr. Ishiba doesn&#8217;t have money.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I know that Mr. Ishiba doesn&#8217;t have any money, and I have no right to complain because he receives the food for free, but when I heard that the Koizumi camp serves high-class yakiniku bento from Lyokuen and KINTAN and bento from New Otani, I wondered what the difference was, even though I had been calling all morning to see them. I kept my motivation up, thinking, &#8220;I can&#8217;t lose to the camp that is eating expensive food.</span></p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="The &quot;second food&quot; he chose on the day of the final battle"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">Ishiba&#8217;s favorite &#8220;under-the-hood&#8221; menu</span></h3>
<p>In addition to Sara-udon, the Ishiba camp served curry, pork cutlet sandwiches, and bento boxes from the basement of the Diet Members&#8217; Building. Akihisa Nagashima, 62, a member of the House of Representatives and a nominator of the Ishiba camp, added, &#8220;There was no such thing as an all-you-can-eat restaurant.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The Ishiba campaign is the embodiment of a presidential campaign that does not require a lot of money. I have become accustomed to eating cold rice since my days as a member of the former Democratic Party of Japan, and the pork cutlet curry I had at today&#8217;s campaign ceremony was cold when I ate it, but looking back on it now, it tasted so good I could feel it rising in my heart.</span></p>
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<p>At the campaign ceremony held on September 27, just before the opening of the election, curry with pork cutlet (1,230 yen) was served at New Tokio, a cafeteria on the first basement floor of the Diet Members&#8217; Building No. 2 of the House of Representatives. The cafeteria serves &#8220;chicken curry&#8221; but does not have curry with pork cutlets on the menu. This &#8220;under-the-counter&#8221; menu item was the second gift that brought glory to Ishiba. The manager of the restaurant says, &#8220;Mr. Ishiba is a secretary at least once a week.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Mr. Ishiba brings his secretary once a week and asks, &#8216;Do you have curry with pork cutlet? He has an unparalleled taste for curry. We are told that Mr. Ishiba is an unparalleled curry connoisseur, so we are honored that he enjoys our curry. Although we are a chain restaurant, the taste and price vary according to the discretion of the manager and the chef, so you cannot get the same curry with pork cutlets everywhere. When you come to the second assembly hall, please feel free to ask, &#8220;Do you have curry with pork cutlets? Please feel free to ask. You will be able to enjoy our curry with pork cutlets for good luck.</span></p>
<p>The restaurant is considering taking this opportunity to move up from a back menu item to a regular menu item.</p>
<figure id="attachment_393044" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1477px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-393044"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7fccba69"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/fdae6d2e3b0e9153b27b2df976da2f51.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-393044" class="wp-caption-text">Ishiba&#8217;s curry with pork cutlet as his &#8220;second winning meal</figcaption></figure>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="The lunchboxes chosen by the Takaichi campaign during the election period are available at ......"></div>
<p>The same was true for Sanae Takaichi, 63, the Minister of State for Economic Affairs and Security, who remained in the runoff election, who was running a &#8220;money-saving presidential campaign.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Another laver bento?&#8221;</span></p>
<p>In Room 918 of the First House of Representatives, where Takaichi&#8217;s campaign team is located, the luxury bento boxes of the Koizumi campaign team were a dream come true.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The senators&#8217; lunches were a little more luxurious, with a few extra fried dishes, but I think they were the richest among the nine camps,&#8221; said a secretary who participated in the phone call.</span></p>
<p>The lunchboxes were said to be inexpensive and filling, with such items as fried chicken and grilled mackerel sushi. Mr. Tomotsugu Takaichi, Mr. Takaichi&#8217;s younger brother and secretary to the minister, expressed his painful feelings, saying, &#8220;We had to make do with the meager funds we had,&#8221; he continued.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He continued, &#8220;I am sorry for the poor food compared to the other camps, but everyone did their best. There were times when I couldn&#8217;t eat my lunch box because my nominators and secretaries from other offices ate it first, and if there was any left over, the staff of the Takaichi office could eat it, too.</span></p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Mr. Ishiba&#8217;s &#8220;Bento Servant&#8221; Reveals His Thoughts</span></h3>
<p>Will the LDP be reborn as an organization that sincerely addresses the issue of &#8220;politics and money&#8221; as a result of the runoff between the two camps with limited financial resources? It is unlikely, but for those involved in the Ishiba campaign, Sara Udon and Katsu Katsu Curry must have tasted very special. Mr. Takeatsu Asai, a secretary in the office of Shoji Maitate, 49, a member of the House of Councilors, who worked as a &#8220;lunch box magistrate&#8221; for the Ishiba campaign and managed the 15-day menu, explains that &#8220;the foodie watchdog&#8221; is a nickname he carries with him.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Kazuhide Yonehama, president of Ringer Hut, is from Tottori, the same hometown as candidate Ishiba. He is also a fan of Sara Udon and Champon. That is the reason why Ringer Hut has served him lunch boxes on four occasions.</span></p>
<p>Ishiba loves to cook, and when he was secretary general, he became the talk of the town when he served &#8220;Ishiba Curry,&#8221; which he made by combining spices he bought overseas, at the party convention&#8217;s eve party. Now that he is the new president, will he serve &#8220;Ishiba Sara Udon&#8221; next?</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="Ishiba shows his relief after the presidential election."></div>
<figure id="attachment_393045" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1108px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-393045"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f66f9eb0"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/f53d5e4576aa9328abd27233c83e1f88.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-393045" class="wp-caption-text">He won the presidential election for the &#8220;fifth time.&#8221; After the election, he expressed his relief</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_393046" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1108px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-393046"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e1c82d85"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/6d3db716d741ff07d09349c1d30d8465.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-393046" class="wp-caption-text">In his first speech after the election, he strongly stated that he aims to create &#8220;a Liberal Democratic Party that allows free and vigorous debate, a fair and just Liberal Democratic Party, and a humble Liberal Democratic Party.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_393047" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1108px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-393047"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="c0516c03"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/18e740be1a6bcf4b4c2ad019196d8d7f.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-393047" class="wp-caption-text">After the election, Mr. Ishiba bowed to the camps that had given him support.</figcaption></figure>
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 Daisuke Iwasaki

 Shigeru Ishiba won the presidential election in which a record number of nine candidates were competing for the presidency. Behind his fifth attempt to win the presidency, there were "two winning bento" that he favored throughout the election campaign.

New Party President Shigeru Ishiba Chooses His ‘Two Winning Bento Boxes’ Over Koizumi Camp’s Jojoen

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