Sorry for the lengthy silence since my last write-up months ago. I was certain then that the LDP’s 100th president would hopefully be a lady – Ms. Sanae Takaichi by name. Well, all elections are politics after all, and the election this time didn’t work out as it should have obviously due to a chain of political maneuverings. This disappointed me in such a way that I suspended writing not for this column alone but in other channels I frequent a lot.

Political maneuverings come in strange combinations, very often against the most probable in favor of the second-best choice. The strong underdog, Taro Kono, failed to register his influence on a few dozens of MPs he had counted on and lost them all to Sanae Takaichi who had entered the race a faintest underdog and finished off second to the winner, Fumio Kishida. 

I thought I had figured it right in my prediction of a close but eventual victory of Sanae Takaichi whom the ex-Premier Shinzo Abe was vigorously pulling for. The popular waves of support for Takaichi were such that most men in the know were sure she would pull through. In fact, she would have, I say, had it not been for a political tuning up that took place in the conservative minds. 

Political tuning up? Right, that’s what it was that actually developed in the minds of factional leaders of LDP – in the eve of voting. One of the legendary factions within LDP is known as Kouchikai, the home of the former premiers, such as Hayato Ikeda and Kiichi Miyazawa. Put in a nutshell, Kouchikai is visibly liberal in political stance on China and Fumio Kishida, one of the candidates, initiated such a political tuning on the eve of voting.

It so happened that Kishida managed his way out winning the election, bringing his faction, Kouchikai, out in the front of political maneuvering. He was quick to appoint Yoshimasa Hayashi, a known pro-Chinese component within LDP, to the post of foreign minister, thus declaring his stance in favor of China amid its hostile position over Senkaku.

Further, Kishida stands neutral to the growing international concerns over what’s happening to the minorities in China, limiting his statement to mere  “humanitarian issues”, evading reference to “infringement of human rights”. Kishida is equally slow in reacting to issues at home and abroad. You should hear what he murmurs over Ukraine and how he evades clean statements on almost all threatening issues.

With the Upper House elections due in July, Kishida is fast losing support in public polls, and LDP has a lot to worry over the election’s outcome.

Some anticipate the return of Sanae Takaichi to help ensure LDP’s victory. We all have to sit back and see what follows from now to July. 

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