Shigeru Ishiba was long considered an outside prospect to become Japan’s leader — so much so that he once said it would take the involvement of the gods themselves.
"If I were ever to become prime minister, it would probably be when the Liberal Democratic Party or Japan was in serious deadlock,” he wrote in his book published last year. "Unless I receive a mandate from heaven, it’s unlikely to happen.”
After Sunday’s humiliation at the polls, whatever mandate from heaven he once commanded is lost.
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