Taro Aso now the target of his own party

A week ago, Tobias Harris outlined for FP the many ways that Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso is hurting his Liberal Democratic Party: the lauding of Japan’s militarist past, the lack of fresh ideas, and the many, many gaffes. Now, many in his own party seem determined to face the next election without him:

The Japanese prime minister, Taro Aso, came under further pressure to resign today, three days after announcing a general election which many of his party allies regard as political suicide.

Members of Mr Aso’s Liberal Democratic Party (LPD) submitted a petition demanding a meeting of members in the upper and lower chambers of parliament. The document was signed by more than one-third of MPs, and the meeting must take place in the next few days. Former allies of Mr Aso are expected to demand that he step down.

The petition further undermines the unity of the LDP before an election that opinion polls suggest it will lose, for only the second time in its 54-year history.

It was signed by Mr Aso’s Agriculture Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, and by the former secretary-general of the party, Hidenao Nakagawa, who appears to have dedicated himself to Mr Aso’s overthrow. It was also signed by the Finance Minister, Kaoru Yosano, who this morning denied reports that he asked Mr Aso to resign in a meeting yesterday.

Honestly, though, it’s hard to see how Aso’s resignation would be anything more than a poor stopgap. Having lost the Tokyo assembly for the first time in four decades, sitting a full twenty points down in the polls, and lacking a united platform, the party will need more than a change in personnel to rescue itself from terminal decline. 

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