Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa became the ninth candidate for the Sept. 27 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election Wednesday, a move that could increase attention on foreign policy questions in a race so far dominated by party reform and domestic economic issues.

The 71-year-old Kamikawa made her announcement one day before the campaign begins Thursday. She is the second woman, after economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, to run for the ruling party’s top post. A key ally of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, she is also the second member of a political faction he previously led to enter the race, after Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, who announced on Sept. 3 that he would run.

While explaining her decision to run for the presidency, Kamikawa spoke about her experiences overseas.