TOKYO - Former Secretary General of opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan Hiroyuki Hosoda said Wednesday that ex-Chief Cabinet Secretary and candidate for the upcoming LDP presidential race Machimura Nobutaka, 68, was hospitalized, Kyodo reported.

Nobutaka was hospitalized for "acute disease", and would cancel all the leadership campaigning Wednesday, Hosoda told reporters after a party meeting this morning. ?

Hosoda did not rule out the possibility of Nobutaka quitting the highly-contested race which sees four other candidates including Shinzo Abe, ex-prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, former LDP policy chief, Nobuteru Ishihara, LDP secretary general and Yoshimasa Hayashi, deputy policy chief face off against each other in the election slated for Sept 26.