TOKYO – The person chosen Friday to lead Japan's governing party, and become prime minister next week, is a veteran politician with deep policy experience, a taste for curry and anime — and big challenges ahead of him as he tries to unite a fractious party and hold off an opposition eager to capitalize on recent corruption scandals.
Shigeru Ishiba has long been popular with voters but has often struggled to win over his conservative fellow Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers.
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A vocal critic of the hawkish politics of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he was long seen as a troublesome outsider by some party members. That makes Friday's victory a huge comeback for Ishiba. It could also signal a break from years of Abe's influence over the party, even after the former prime minister's assassination.
Some analysts believe that Ishiba was chosen as much for his image as a centrist who can counter challenges by the more liberal main opposition party as for his policy views.
The 67-year-old former banker was running in the party leadership race for a fifth time and had said this was going to be his “final battle.”
Ishiba was first elected to parliament in 1986, after being influenced by the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, who was popular with the public. He has served as defense minister, agriculture minister and in other key Cabinet posts, and as the LDP secretary general under Abe.
His party will now look for him to use his experience, stability and expertise to beat back the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, which recently chose as its new leader former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, a veteran known for his inspiring speeches.
University of Tokyo politics professor Yu Uchiyama said political parties tend to make centrist shifts to win elections, and Ishiba could do well in an upcoming parliamentary face-off with the opposition leader.
Considered a defense policy expert, Ishiba has proposed an Asian version of the NATO military alliance and a more equal and mutual Japan-U.S. security alliance, including having Japanese Self Defense Force bases in the United States.
“Mr. Ishiba has ideas about security that may go beyond what the United States expects from Japan, like an Asian version of NATO,” said Masato Kamikubo, a political science professor at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. “But I don't think there will be a change in Japan-U.S. diplomatic and security relations."
Ishiba is a supporter of Taiwan’ s democracy. He calls for the establishment of a disaster management agency in one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.
Ishiba has vowed to push for more diversity and gender equality. He supports a revision to a 19th century civil code that requires married couples to choose one of their surnames. That has caused most women to adopt their husband’s surname. Moves to change the code have stalled for decades because of LDP opposition.
At a recent speech in Tokyo, Ishiba said Japanese women are among the shortest sleepers in the world because of their heavy responsibilities both at work and home. He said most husbands, including himself, hardly help with childrearing and homemaking.
Ishiba also supports legalizing same-sex marriage.
Ishiba is known as a policy “otaku,” or nerd, especially in security and defense issues. He likes anime, building model warships and listening to 1970s and '80s Japanese pop songs. He says his favorite food is curried rice.