Analysis | Ambitious Shigeru Ishiba the man to watch as campaign to topple Shinzo Abe begins
Shigeru Ishiba has only has 19 members in his faction - one short of the 20 threshold required to nominate a challenger for the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party
Unemployment is at record lows and Japan’s economy grew by a respectable 2.2 per cent in the first quarter of the year, the fifth consecutive quarter of growth, making it the longest positive streak in 11 years.
Private consumption and corporate spending are both up, the public has a royal wedding to look forward to and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has scored points with the public by paving the way for Emperor Akihito to abdicate next year.
Abe’s public support rate remains at a comfortable 55 per cent, despite the inevitable odd wobble to hit the administration, and he is on course to rival Junichiro Koizumi as the longest serving prime minister of Japan since the 1960s.
Yet Shigeru Ishiba senses that Abe is vulnerable. And this heavyweight of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has started a gradual campaign to usurp Abe as party leader and prime minister.
Ishiba, a 60-year-old former minister who was born and grew up in rural Tottori Prefecture in south-west Japan, held a fundraising party in Tokyo on May 9 for a faction - named Suigetsukai - that he set up within the LDP in September 2015.
