With the world¡¯s oldest population, rapidly declining births, gargantuan public debt and increasingly damaging natural disasters fueled by climate change, Japan faces deep-rooted challenges that the long-standing governing party has failed to tackle.
Yet in choosing a new prime minister Wednesday, the Liberal Democratic Party elected the candidate least likely to offer bold solutions.
The party¡¯s elite power brokers chose Fumio Kishida, 64, a stalwart moderate, in a runoff election for the leadership, seeming to disregard the public¡¯s preference for a maverick challenger. In doing so, they anointed a politician with little to distinguish him from the unpopular departing leader, Yoshihide Suga, or his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, Japan¡¯s longest-serving prime minister.
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