Few, if any, observers of Japanese politics were surprised by the announcement Sunday that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was resigning.
The losses of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in recent elections reduced it to a minority in both houses of parliament, marking the first time since 2009 that the party has lost control of the lower house. Ishiba was in power when President Donald Trump reduced tariffs on Japan from 27.5% to 15%, and, according to reports, the two leaders signed an agreement in which Japan agreed to invest $550 million in the U.S.
In a climate of political uncertainty for the world’s fourth-largest economy, Ishiba was Japan’s fourth prime minister in five years. His announced exit focused international attention on the runner-up to Ishiba in the last race for the LDP — former Minister for Economic Security Sanae Takaichi.
Just as the United Kingdom’s Margaret Thatcher was known as the “Iron Lady,” Takaichi, who seeks to become Japan’s first-ever female prime minister, has been nicknamed “the Lady of Steel.” She is a member of the nationalist Nippon Kaigi organization (which seeks to change “the postwar national consciousness” from the verdict on World War II of the Tokyo Tribunal “as a fundamental problem”).
Like the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, she is a vigorous supporter of repealing Article 9 of the Constitution and thus permitting Japan to rearm and maintain military forces, positions which clearly place her to the right of all three of Abe’s successors as prime minister.
In the race to be LDP president and thus prime minister in 2024, Takaichi led in the initial balloting of members of the National Diet (lower house) but lost to Ishiba in the final runoff by a slim 215 to 194 votes.
Much like Ronald Reagan after narrowly losing the Republican presidential nomination to incumbent Gerald Ford in 1976, Takaichi, 64, has become increasingly popular with the conservative grassroots of the LDP.
“Obviously, Ishiba does not want to hand over his chair to Takaichi, who is essentially Abe wearing a skirt,” Hideya Yamamoto, former Washington bureau chief for the Japanese news service Sankei Shimbun, told Newsmax.
He cited recent public opinion polls showing Takaichi and Shinjiro Koizumi, the Agriculture Minister and son of a much-loved former prime minister, are the most favored candidates among voters who support LDP. But Yamamoto quickly pointed out that “inside the LDP, Takaichi still cannot take major support by both upper and lower house members for granted. This includes members of the faction long led by Abe.”
Echoing Yamamoto’s opinion was Yuya Watase, a co-founder of the new MAGA-style Sanseito Party, which made major gains in races for the House of Councilors (the upper house of parliament) in elections in July.
Ishiba’s resignation, Watase told Newsmax, “has strengthened Takaichi’s influence. But her backers, the [former Prime Minister Taro] Aso and Abe factions, have lost key members in the House of Representatives [lower house]. So it is uncertain whether she can consolidate her leadership within the party.”
Also mentioned as a candidate for prime minister is Yoshimasa “Yogi” Hayashi, 64, who held the powerful position of Chief Cabinet Secretary under Ishiba and previously served as foreign minister and defense minister.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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