After ‘really shocking’ LDP losses in Japan’s special elections, can Fumio Kishida survive as PM?

Kishida, the current LDP president, may not have been directly implicated in the misappropriation of funds, but his inability to get the party in order has given voters the distinct impression that he is weak. With an election for the party’s presidency set for September, analysts believe his rivals may begin to circle.

“He is in a very tough situation, and he is going to find it difficult to hang on,” said Hiromi Murakami, a political-science professor at the Tokyo campus of Temple University.

“The election result in Shimane prefecture was really shocking because that is meant to be one of the LDP’s heartlands,” she told This Week In Asia. “If the party cannot keep those sorts of seats, then you have to ask how he is going to turn this around.”

However, the party was more confident about retaining Shimane’s No. 1 district, a long-standing conservative bastion, where the special election was triggered by the death of Hiroyuki Hosoda, the former speaker of the lower house.

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With the ruling party deeply unpopular, the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan took advantage and won all three seats. It then immediately demanded that the LDP call a general election on the grounds that it is impossible for it to bring about the political reforms that the nation requires.

Even more worrying for Kishida are the exit polls conducted by the Jiji Press news agency indicating 40 per cent of voters want him to step down immediately.

“It’s pretty clear that the public is very angry about these scandals, but also Kishida’s inability to decisively solve the party’s problems,” Murakami said, pointing out that while there had been