The LDP presidential election is now just two days away, set to be held on Sunday. All signs point to Fukuda Yasuo being elected as party president and thus prime minister.Mr. Fukuda evidently has the support of seventy percent of the 387 Diet members and leads in at least twenty-three prefectures.Mr. Aso simply overplayed his …
Tag: factional politics
Who is Fukuda Yasuo?
Another day has passed, and it looks ever clearer that Fukuda Yasuo has cemented enough support to ensure his victory in the Sept. 23rd LDP presidential election. As this Asahi article notes, Mr. Fukuda has apparently gained the support of 298 Diet members, which is well over the necessary 264 votes he needs to win. …
Two horse race
Nukaga Fukushiro, finance minister and member of the Tsushima faction, the LDP's second-largest, has reportedly abandoned plans to run in the party presidential election, due to pressure from his own faction. This means, of course, that Mr. Fukuda is the undisputed "anybody-but-Aso" candidate — and now the undisputed front runner, having sewed up the support …
Mr. Aso and the Fukuda headwind
The official campaign period for the LDP presidential election begins today, and the situation is extremely fluid due to the entrance of Fukuda Yasuo into the race, which Mainichi describes as having attracted an instant majority of Diet members thanks to support of the Machimura faction (80 members total) and some members in the Koga …
Anti-faction non-faction to become a faction?
Say that five times fast.In response to the readmission of Hiranuma Takeo, prominent postal rebel, to the LDP, and to the general thrust of discourse within the LDP — Mr. Abe's speech to the Diet yesterday notwithstanding — the reform-minded "Koizumi children" are apparently at work preparing to convert their study group into a formal …
Continue reading Anti-faction non-faction to become a faction?
The adults are back?
The new cabinet appointments have been dribbling out over the course of the afternoon — apologies for, literally, being out to lunch — and the first impression I get is that the collective experience of the new Abe cabinet is of experience and competence. And while Abe may have made it a point not to …
A new phase in the battle to unseat Abe
Jiji and Mainichi report today on the creation of an anti-Abe "study group" composed of eight members from the Yamasaki, Tanigaki, and Tsushima factions, some of whom have already gone public with criticism of the prime minister.The ringleader is former Education Minister Kosaka Kenji of the Tsushima faction, who was education minister in the final …
The shape of the cabinet to come?
Over at Shisaku, MTC relays a Yomiuri story reporting that Foreign Minister Aso will be Nakagawa Hidenao's replacement as LDP secretary-general.MTC correctly notes that the LDP secretariat is hardly the ideal position from which Aso can claim the premiership, indeed, it will likely burden him with the trying task of hammering together a unified LDP …
Doing the Abe shuffle
Prime Minister Abe has reportedly committed to executing a cabinet and party leadership reshuffle by the end of August, following his summer travels to India, Indonesia, and Malaysia.This despite pressure from within the party to act quickly, with former Prime Minister Mori suggesting that waiting too long for a reshuffle would be a "body blow" …
"Post Abe" comes early
Ampontan — aka the yarase blogger — appears to have abandoned Abe Shinzo for...Foreign Minister Aso Taro.At least that's what I conclude from this love letter he wrote to Aso yesterday.Is there any serious likelihood of Aso ascending to the premiership in the wake of a disastrous LDP performance next month? A commentator ("AC") on …
Tobias S. Harris 