By Sakura Murakami and John Geddie TOKYO (Reuters) -A leadership contest in Japan's ruling party to determine who will take over as prime minister headed to a run-off on Friday, putting a candidate seeking to become Japan's first female premier against a veteran making his fifth leadership bid.

Shigeru Ishiba was elected as the new prime minister of Japan on Friday. The country’s governing political party, the Liberal Democratic Party, voted for the former minister of defense to lead the country. Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party has primarily been the country’s ruling party since the end of World War II.

Japan finds out its next leader on Friday when the ruling party of outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida picks his replacement in a key vote that could affect the country’s political stability in coming months.