Photo/Illutration Shigeru Ishiba, a Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight, walks inside the party headquarters in Tokyo's Nagatacho district before meeting with Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai on Sept. 14. Ishiba has decided to opt out of the party leadership election, according to sources. (Koichi Ueda)

Losing the trust of the people has cost Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga not only the support of his own party, but his job as well.

Now that the Liberal Democratic Party is going to elect Suga's successor, the candidates are focusing solely on securing votes from fellow lawmakers by competing to prove their readiness to do whatever is expected of them by the party's top heavyweights.

This extremely "internal-looking" nature of the contest is hardly conducive to narrowing the gap between the party and the public.

With the LDP presidential election campaign scheduled to kick off on Sept. 17, the withdrawal of former party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba has effectively set the stage for a contest among former party policy chief Fumio Kishida, former internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi and COVID-19 vaccine minister Taro Kono.

The candidates have already announced their policies on various issues. But what must not be overlooked is that they have started making a series of moves that include wooing former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has the party's largest Hosoda faction under his control, as well as shelving their beliefs or changing their policy directions.

Kishida initially noted of the falsification of official documents concerning the Moritomo Gakuen scandal, "The public says the scandal has not been investigated sufficiently. I will fulfill accountability until they are convinced."

But after Abe indicated his intention to support Takaichi, Kishida made his position crystal clear that he would not consider reopening the case.

Also, in stating his interest in proposing four items for constitutional amendment, including one concerning the Self-Defense Forces, and in unequivocally opposing the idea of an emperor from a female line of the imperial family, Kishida stressed his being on the same page as Abe on these issues.

Kono, too, declared it unnecessary to reinvestigate the Moritomo Gakuen scandal. And as for the prospect of a female-line emperor he formerly supported, he stopped discussing it altogether after his meeting with Abe.

With regard to his energy policy, his pointing out the need to keep operating nuclear plants for the time being invited widespread understanding that he is toning down his anti-nuclear argument.

Takaichi, who has been close to Abe to start with, advocates policies that are practically identical to Abe, from her economic policy stemming from Abenomics to constitutional revision and allowing Japan to possess weapons capable of striking enemy bases.

And her pledge to keep visiting Yasukuni Shrine after becoming prime minister was obviously made with conservative Abe supporters in mind.

There is no doubt that Abe's long regime of seven years and eight months has damaged the nation. The undoing of the Suga administration after one year was not due only to his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic response, but had partly to do with his inheriting the Abe administration before his predecessor's achievements and failures were properly assessed.

Questioning the "Abe-Suga politics" is precisely what the upcoming LDP presidential election should be about.

According to the latest Asahi Shimbun poll, 58 percent of respondents said the new prime minister should not maintain the Abe-Suga policy line, more than double the 28 percent who wanted it continued.

Ishiba, who has drawn a clear line between himself and Abe by opposing Abe-led calls for changing the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution as well as by openly supporting the reinvestigation of the Moritomo Gakuen scandal, intends to back Kono.

Each candidate is being tested on their capability to put an end to old-school politics by resisting Abe's behind-the-scenes influence and engage in deep debate that is open to the public.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 15

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