With less than a month to go before Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) chooses a leader who will be prime minister, incumbent Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga stunned observers in and outside Japan by announcing he will step down on Sept. 30.
With the LDP leadership election to be held Sept. 29, sources in Tokyo told Newsmax that Suga's near-certain successor is his archrival, former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.
The same sources told us that, as is almost always the case with a change in prime ministers, there will be no change in the LDP's strongly pro-U.S. foreign policy and its increasing hard line against China.
Shortly before Suga's surprise exit, Kishida said in an interview that Taiwan will be the ''next big problem'' for Japan after China's ham-fisted crackdown on Hong Kong.
As prime minister, Kishida is expected to keep fellow Taiwan hard-liners such as Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi in his Cabinet.
While other names are being mentioned for the LDP helm (which brings with it the prime minister's office), Kishida is by far the favorite. Days ago, as the embattled Suga was dealing with record-low approval ratings of less than 30% in several polls, Kishida announced he would challenge the prime minister for the LDP chairmanship.
When Suga announced on Friday that he was stepping down, Kishida was the lone candidate in the LDP contest and reportedly has locked up most of the leading party factions in the Diet (parliament).
Much as Joe Biden became president after serving as vice president to President Barack Obama, Suga reached his country's top office at a later age (72) after serving as the right-hand man to a charismatic former leader — in his case, as chief Cabinet secretary (roughly the equivalent of a White House chief of staff in the U.S.) under longtime (2012-20) Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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