Political drama from the Liberal Democratic Party is in full play as five LDP politicians contend for the party presidency. Although the LDP is benefiting from media coverage, the race is taking place only because Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, the current LDP president, announced his resignation suddenly without convincing reasons.
About a year before Mr. Fukuda's announcement, his predecessor Mr. Shinzo Abe also quit in a similar manner. These two incidents suggest that the LDP's sense of responsibility has weakened. The LDP presidential candidates and the party as a whole should understand how much the LDP's credibility has suffered. The LDP hopes that the presidential race will help heighten people's interest in the party. Its political schedule is clearly designed to steal the show from the Democratic Party of Japan, which will officially choose Mr. Ichiro Ozawa for a third, two-year term as party leader Sept. 21. The next day the LDP will hold a conference of its Diet members and choose their new president, who will subsequently become the next prime minister. The party apparently wants to have the next prime minister dissolve the Lower House while people's interest in the new administration remains high — a tactic aimed at helping the LDP win in the subsequent general elections.
But voters have paid a price for permitting politicians to engage in "theatrical politics," as represented by the September 2005 general elections in which voters gave an overwhelming victory to the LDP led by then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. It is not certain whether voters this time will behave the same way.