Less than 24 hours after Shigeru Ishiba announced his resignation as prime minister, Japan’s ruling party faces a leadership contest that few seem eager to win and even fewer to survive, as it lays bare internal rivalries.
Few within Japanese politics were truly taken aback when Ishiba confirmed his decision to step down as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in a televised address on Sunday evening.
On Monday, former LDP secretary general Toshimitsu Motegi became the first to throw his hat into the ring to replace Ishiba, pledging to “devote my all to this country” in a bid to restore unity and confront the “severe domestic and international challenges facing Japan”. The LDP, he said, was “facing its greatest crisis since its founding”.
But Motegi’s campaign appears hamstrung from the outset. His political faction was dissolved amid the slush fund scandal that engulfed the LDP throughout 2023 and 2024 and public trust has yet to recover.
While Motegi is the only contender to have formally declared he will run, political analysts say the contest is shaping up as a battle between two clear favourites: Shinjiro Koizumi, the charismatic scion of a former prime minister with centrist leanings; and Sanae Takaichi, a hawkish protégé of former prime minister Shinzo Abe who could steer the party further to the right.
