Meet Japan’s new leader
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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. It’s an important global event when the world’s third-largest economy and a significant ally of the United States gets a new leader—even when that country is Japan. Tokyo has a history of producing a parade of bland, largely anonymous Prime Ministers with the occasional star.
Which will Shigeru Ishiba be? Mr. Ishiba on Friday was elected leader of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which makes him Prime Minister given the LDP-led coalition’s majority in both houses of parliament. He immediately called a snap election for Oct.
27 to shore up his mandate, so Japanese politics will remain in turmoil. The leadership race, which featured nine candidates, started when former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stepped aside amid an LDP campaign-finance scandal. Mr.
Ishiba’s immediate political challenge will be to rebuild public trust in the LDP while facing stiff competition from Yoshihiko Noda of the Constitutional Democratic Party. Articulating a policy agenda might help, since this was notably lacking from the internal LDP contest. Mr.
Ishiba is strongest on national defense. He’s expected to maintain Mr. Kishida’s agenda to double Japanese defense spending as a share of GDP, as well as developing stronger alliances with the U.S.
and South Korea. He’s visited Taiwan several times, most recently in August, and supports efforts to deter a Chinese invasion of the island. Don’t misinterpret Mr.
Ishiba’s stated desire to renegotiate the status-of-forces agreement governing America’s military presence in Japan: By all accounts he favors a more equal security partnership, not a weaker alliance with America. He has in mind an Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The bigger mystery
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