Abe's Biggest Rival to Run Japan May Come From His Own Party
- LDP factions may determine who becomes next prime minister
- Kishida’s faction won influence in latest cabinet reshuffle
Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, arrives ahead of a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, on Aug. 3, 2017.
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
With Japan’s opposition wracked by infighting, any challenge to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s grip on power -- as his popularity slides after a series of scandals and missteps -- is likely to come from his own party.
Most lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party are members of factions, in a system that dates back to the party’s founding in 1955, when two conservative groups merged. The combined entity has gone on to dominate Japanese politics, in power for all but a handful of years over the past seven decades.