Conservatives Restart Anti-Ishiba Moves

Lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who take distance from Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba restarted their activities to demonstrate their presence in the party. They held a conference on security strategy with attendance of mostly conservative lawmakers on May 14th. It is still unclear whether they will be integrated under a leadership of a candidate for next presidential election of the LDP. 

The LDP presidential election last October became a contest with unprecedented nine candidates. Among the candidates, Yoshimasa Hayashi, current Chief Cabinet Secretary, and Katsunobu Kato, Minister of Finance, joined Ishiba Cabinet. Others do not have a major title in the cabinet or LDP board. Leaders of former Abe faction lost their power, involved in kickback fund scandal. The election divided LDP leaders between main stream and the sidelines.

 

Those sidelined leaders, mostly categorized as hawks, restarted long-inactive policy group called Strategic Headquarters for Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) in the LDP. FOIP is a concept for regional security against China’s advance in Asia promoted by former prime minister Shinzo Abe. The conference is, in other words, a community of conservative lawmakers who hope to succeed security and diplomatic policies of former Abe administration.

 

Although they chose former prime minister, Taro Aso, for their chair, the headquarters is basically recognized as a group led by Sanae Takaichi, a conservative figure who ran for the presidential election last year. Takaichi assumed deputy chair, supporting Aso. Two leaders of former Abe faction, Koichi Hagiuda and Yasutoshi Nishimura, became vice-chairs of the headquarters. Hagiuda and Nishimura was stripped their leadership or membership of the LDP for a year, as a penalty of the slush fund scandal.

 

Another candidate for last presidential election, Toshimitsu Motegi, joined the headquarters as an advisor, and Takayuki Kobayashi supports Secretary General Minoru Kihara as his deputy. Kobayashi did not appear in the meeting, taking little distance from those sidelined leaders.

 

Although the headquarters is titled as a security policy forum, it is effectively an anti-Ishiba group in the LDP. Their goal is electing post-Ishiba figure for next presidential election. They hope that next election will be held as early as this fall, in case the LDP results in a miserable defeat in the Upper House election in July, and Ishiba will be forced to step down as the prime minister.

 

However, it is unlikely for the conservative group to uphold Takaichi for their candidate for next LDP presidential election. The candidates in the election last year, Motegi and Kobayashi, have their own supporters in the party. They are looking for an opportunity to retry. It is also unclear how many LDP lawmakers will follow those conservative members, defying current leadership of Ishiba Cabinet and LDP board.

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