Since the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022, the power balance within the Liberal Democratic Party shifted dramatically from Abe's conservative wing to the liberal wing. With the election of Sanae Takaichi as party leader — and presumably Japan's first female prime minister — the power balance will shift toward the center.
Following the systematic decimation of the conservative wing by former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, LDP conservative members held no Cabinet or senior party positions. Some were refused party endorsement and support. The weakest ones were dropped to the bottom of the proportional ranks. When the party lost votes, as it did disastrously in the past two national elections under Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, those at the bottom of the list disappeared.
When Abe was party leader, he did a masterful job in balancing the needs and ambitions of the two disparate wings of the "big tent" party that the LDP has been since 1955. He named Ishiba as the party secretary-general after defeating him in a presidential election and later gave the same job to the liberal Toshihiro Nikai. The up-and-coming members from both wings were appointed to Cabinet roles. Kishida was named foreign minister, before Abe supported him for the LDP leader.
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