Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is now well established in his post, but the implications of his elevation to leader of the country continue to shake out within his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Last Thursday, LDP veteran and former Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba announced he would step down as the leader of his faction, the Suigetsukai. The 19-member group is one of the smallest of the LDP’s seven factions and Ishiba’s resignation raises questions about its future.
Those concerns deepened Monday after the faction gave up on choosing a successor. Ishiba had originally hoped that former Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita would assume the post, but he declined.