Japan's ruling party burns through another leader

IT'S NOT EASY BEING JAPAN'S Prime Minister. Though the center-right Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has dominated the country's politics for nearly seven decades, the top job has frequently changed hands. Fumio Kishida is just the third leader in the past quarter-century to last at least two years. Yet once again, change is coming.

- IAN BREMMER

His weakness is obvious. A May poll from Japan's NHK put Kishida's approval rating at a dismal 24%, down from 36% in October 2023. To remain Prime Minister, Kishida must stay on as president of the ruling LDP. But his current term in that role app ends in September, and an especially rough night for his party in special elections in April makes it unlikely that he can hold on.

How did Kishida get here? Rising consumer prices, a weak Japanese yen, and accusations of economic mismanagement have dogged Kishida. Nor is he helped by reports that Japan will slip to the world's fifth largest economy by 2025, just behind India. Months earlier, Japan fell into fourth place, behind Germany.