The torturous term of Shigeru Ishiba as Liberal Democratic Party leader and prime minister has finally come to an end — in similar fashion to how it began — with broken promises and a damaged party.
Last September, Ishiba won a shocking victory in the LDP presidential election over the first-round decisive winner, Sanae Takaichi, after former prime ministers Fumio Kishida and Yoshihide Suga reversed course in allowing their supporters to vote as they wished — directing them to vote for Ishiba in the second round of voting. Their objective was to block Takaichi, a protege of Shinzo Abe, from the prime ministership.
What motivated these two men to take that action after Kishida predictably supported his former faction lieutenant and chief Cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, and Suga backed his fellow Kanagawa delegate, Shinjiro Koizumi, in the first round remains fuzzy.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.