Things are heating up within the Liberal Democratic Party.
This past week has seen a flurry of activity by party heavyweights jockeying for position ahead of the LDP presidential election — now officially slated for late next month. By design, the party is trying to keep things from spilling out into the media, but there are enough puzzle pieces available to formulate a picture of the back-room battles taking place.
One thing the picture reveals is the target on Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s back. That is unsurprising, since he was a compromise candidate that the LDP propped up last year following Shinzo Abe's sudden resignation. Party leaders designed that compromise to be temporary; after all, if they were fully behind Suga, they would not have limited his presidential term to one year instead of the standard three. With his term coming to an end in September, we are seeing others who have eyes on his position.