When Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party in September, he had two tasks to deliver.
First, passing amendments to the political funding control law so the ruling party could move on from the funding scandal of the past 18 months. Second, approving the supplementary budget by the end of last year and the 2025 fiscal year budget by the end of March.
Ishiba essentially received these assignments from former Prime Ministers Fumio Kishida and Yoshihide Suga when they shifted their support toward the current leader, a perennial outsider, in the second round of the LDP election — surprisingly in the case of Suga, and some would say treacherously.
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