Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura revealed that he has ambitions to someday lead the nation, but said that as chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction, his present role is to give full support to Prime Minister Taro Aso.
"We have the highest number of members, and the moment we give up on Aso, everything will start to fall apart," the veteran lawmaker said during a recent interview. "I think it is clear that our faction must form the core support for the Aso administration."
In the past decade, the Machimura faction has produced many prime ministers — Yoshiro Mori, Junichiro Koizumi, Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda. But the faction became the focus of negative attention after the two previous leaders, Abe and Fukuda, suddenly resigned after serving only a year.