Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is grappling with an identity crisis, its decades-long political dominance rattled first by a humiliating electoral defeat and now, the anticipated resignation of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Ishiba, 68, on Wednesday dismissed as “completely unfounded” media reports that he had already decided to step down. But analysts contend that his departure is all but inevitable after the LDP’s second consecutive loss and the collapse of his minority government in both houses of the Diet.
The focus now shifts to who might succeed Ishiba and whether the wounded party, riven by deepening internal schisms, will be able to reclaim the political centre or veer further to the right.
Analysts say the party must decide whether to rally behind a moderate successor in the mould of Ishiba or his predecessor Fumio Kishida, or embrace a rightward shift in an attempt to recover voters drawn to nationalist challengers such as Sanseito and the Conservative Party of Japan.
“Ishiba’s resignation was inevitable,” Hiromi Murakami, a professor of political science at Temple University’s Tokyo campus, told This Week in Asia.
