While holding onto his office for weeks after losing elections for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ruling party in both houses of government, which usually forces the head of the party to promptly resign, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba finally resigned today, a day before the LDP members were planning a referendum on whether to hold a vote for the leadership.
According to Reuters, “He instructed his Liberal Democratic Party—which has ruled Japan for almost all of the post-war period—to hold an emergency leadership race, adding he would continue his duties until his successor was elected.” The decline of support for the LDP was largely over the cost of living, but Ishiba was generally considered a weak leader. “Concern over political uncertainty prompted a sell-off in Japan’s yen currency and its government bonds last week, with the yield on the 30-year bond hitting a record high on Wednesday” Sept. 3, Reuters added. “Ishiba, a party outsider who became leader on his fifth attempt last September, wrapped up his brief tenure by completing the trade deal with the U.S., Japan’s biggest trading partner, pledging $550 billion of investments in return for lower tariffs. Trump’s tariffs, especially those targeted at Japan’s critical automotive sector, had forced Japan to downgrade its already weak growth outlook for the year.”
Reuters quotes an economist at Meiji Yasuda Research Institute that the possible replacements for Ishiba are Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of a former Prime Minister, or who has criticized the Bank of Japan’s interest rate hikes.
The domestic media, however, consider LDP veteran Sanae Takaichi and Shinjiro Koizumi, the farm minister tasked with trying to rein in soaring rice prices, as front runners. They are also the top two picks in public opinion polls on Ishiba’s successor. Ishiba narrowly defeated Sanae Takaichi in last year’s LDP leadership run-off. EIR's friend Daisuke Kotegawa considers Koizumi to be weak and a puppet of the establishment. Kotegawa serves as a board member of the committee supporting Yoshimasa Hayashi, the current Cabinet Secretary (the second highest position in the party), as the best candidate.
