Despite long being considered a maverick within the Liberal Democratic Party for criticizing the faction system, digital minister Taro Kono is running as the only faction-endorsed candidate in the Sept. 27 presidential election, in which party reform and the system's problems are key issues.
Five LDP factions are in the process of being downgraded to policy groups following their dissolution earlier this year in the wake of the LDP's political funding scandal. They face strict restrictions on fundraising activities as a result.
Only the 54-member bloc led by LDP Vice President Taro Aso, which was not implicated in the scandal, chose to continue as a formal faction. Kono belongs to this faction and has its endorsement to run in the election.
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