Whoever wins the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election on Oct. 4 will face many challenges, the first being how to repair a party deeply divided and unpopular with voters.
But with the LDP now a minority government, it’s not clear if anyone can put the party back together again — raising questions about whether, after seven decades, it’s finally time for the LDP to split into smaller, but more unified, parties.
When Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced on Sept. 7 that he was stepping down, it came after more than a month of interparty turmoil following the ruling coalition’s Upper House election loss in July, in which the LDP and Komeito lost their majority in both chambers of parliament.
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