Japan: Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s cruel summer ends with his exit

While there have been several corruption scandals before, this latest one came at a painful time.

“The economic situation affected people’s mindset,” Prof Murakami said. “People had suffered so much from the [Covid] crisis. They’re barely paying their bills. But now [they see] politicians that have chunks of money that they’re not going to pay tax for” – a reference to the LDP’s admission that some MPs had not reported their income properly.

While his popularity at home was nose-diving, Mr Kishida had done well on the international stage. He was Japan’s longest-serving foreign minister before becoming prime minister. As PM, he hosted the G7 summit last year, visited Ukraine and thawed relations with South Korea, a crucial ally against both China and North Korea.

Relations with Washington are as strong as ever. He addressed Congress earlier this year on President Biden’s invitation – and received a standing ovation.

“Thank you,” he told his audience. “I never get such nice applause from the Japanese Diet [parliament].

Back home, Japanese media slammed the visit, with one headline declaring “Kishida shouldn’t use the summit as a tool for domestic politics”.

If that was the aim, he didn’t succeed. Mr Kishida was swamped with fighting on so many fronts – and his party and voters ran out of patience.

“People vote on pocketbook issues,” Prof Kingston said. “Great that he is parading around Nato, the EU… and the United States. At the end of the day, I want to see more pay in my wallet.”

Mr Kishida said that the LDP needs a new start – and it needs to convince the Japanese people it can change.

The opposition is still too weak and divided to be a viable option, but there is a great deal of mistrust within the ruling party.

Can a different face at the top unite the Liberal Democratic Party and fix its tarnished image? September will tell.