News LDP leadership race

Elders in the party, which has had a near-monopoly on power in the decades since World War II, made their choice confident that, with a weak political opposition and low voter turnout, they would face little chance of losing a general election later this year. So, largely insulated from voter pressure, they opted for a predictable former foreign minister who has learned to control any impulse to stray from the mainstream party platform. "In a sense, you are ignoring the voice of the rank and file in order to get somebody the party bosses are more comfortable with," said Jeff Kingston, the director of Asian studies at Temple University in Tokyo.

Click to expand...