The sudden decision by U.S. President Joe Biden to not seek reelection is raising questions in Japan about its impact on the Liberal Democratic Party's own presidential election and who among the possible candidates would be best at dealing with the next U.S. president as prime minister.
American voters go to the polls on Nov. 5 to vote for either Republican candidate Donald Trump or current U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is all but certain to be formally nominated by the Democratic Party at their convention next month.
The LDP presidential contest is expected to take place sometime in late September. Party leaders had assumed that whoever emerges victorious would deal with either Biden or Trump after November.