Enlarge By Yoshikazu Tsuno, AFP/ Getty Images Yuriko Koike, one of five candidates vying to head the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, greets supporters in Tokyo on Tuesday. The former defense minister and TV anchor is trailing in the polls. HONG KONG  Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sarah Palin aren't the only women taking a whack at the political glass ceiling this year. In Japan, a woman for the first time is attempting to become president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) — a position that would make her the country's next prime minister. Yuriko Koike, a former defense minister and television anchor, was even calling herself "Japan's Hillary" until Barack Obama clinched the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination. Koike, 56, is one of five candidates vying to be head of the party that has ruled Japan for most of the last half-century. Party officials will pick their new leader Monday. The president of the LDP ends up as prime minister because the party predominates in the lower house of parliament. The leadership shake-up was set in motion Sept. 1 when Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, unpopular and mired in bickering with the political opposition, unexpectedly resigned. Koike is a long-shot contender. The clear front-runner is former foreign minister Taro Aso, 67, known for his love of manga comics, his broad smile and unapologetic attitude toward Japan's World War II aggression against neighboring China and Korea. The other candidates are legislator Nobuteru Ishihara, legislator and economic policymaker Kaoru Yosanu and former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba. In Japan, Koike says, the barriers to ambitious women are made of iron, not glass. But she has enlivened what might have been a dull leadership contest, says Tokyo political analyst Michael Cucek. "With Koike in the race, the election at least seems to have significance beyond the simple coronation of the one who has been called the 'Grinning Prince,' " Cucek says. Koike's quixotic candidacy is a symbolic breakthrough. "I would like a female prime minister because she can understand what women are going through much better than men," says college student Kaori Sekiguchi, 20, referring to the difficulties of balancing motherhood and working, taking care of aging parents and managing household finances. The aging males who dominate Japanese politics haven't always shown much understanding of women's issues. Japan took four decades to approve birth-control pills, but just six months to OK the male impotence drug Viagra. Last year, the LDP's former health minister, Hakuo Yanagisawa, famously called women "baby-making machines." And the United Nations ranked Japan 54th of 177 countries in terms of economic and political power of women — well behind most rich countries. Koike took an unusual path to prominence. She left college in Japan to study Arabic in Cairo. (Her website is available in Japanese, English and Arabic.) After working as a translator, she moved into broadcast journalism and won awards for her work during the 1990-1991 Gulf War. She entered politics in 1992 and was elected to parliament for the short-lived opposition Japan New Party. Over the years, she has jumped from one party to another — five in all — earning the nickname wataridori or migratory bird. She eventually made her way to the ruling LDP. She has served as environmental minister, defense minister and national security adviser. Critics such as commentator Yumiko Yokota say Koike has not accomplished much during her years in office — other than the well-publicized "Cool Biz" program to save energy from air conditioning by getting office workers to wear lighter clothes during the summer. Koike is widely seen as a proxy for the LDP's maverick former prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, who announced his support for her candidacy last week. Koizumi had recruited her to run as one of his "ninja assassins" in the 2005 election to the lower house of parliament against party renegades who refused to support his economic reforms. "She doesn't have her own policies or views," says Tokyo political analyst Minoru Morita. Another woman, Seiko Noda, 48, who is a five-term member of Japan's House of Representatives, may have a better shot to make a future run at becoming Japan's first woman prime minister, Cucek says. Noda, who is politically savvy and comes from a political dynasty, is still rebuilding support within the LDP after clashing with Koizumi in 2005. Otherwise, she would already "be giving Aso the willies," Cucek says. "Noda's time will come." Kawamura reported from Tokyo. 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