Meet Japan’s new PM – installed by a grey coup of party insiders

There’s a good chance that nothing that occurs in the new Japanese PM’s tenure will be nearly as interesting as how he got the job in the first place. While not quite in the Belarusian league, Yoshihide Suga’s victory in the ruling Liberal Democratic party leadership election was nonetheless a stitch-up of staggering brazenness for a law-governed democracy.

Suga (71) the former Chief Cabinet Secretary in Shinzo Abe’s administration, would probably have lost out to rival Shigeru Ishiba had the election been held in the normal way, with all party members given a vote. But Suga’s cause was massively boosted when the party’s secretary general Toshihiro Nikai decided that in a time of ‘emergency’ the franchise should be limited to parliamentary members only, amongst whom Suga is popular.

In return, ‘shadow Shogun’ Nikai (a sprightly 81) will likely be rewarded with keeping his job and very possibly retaining a fair degree of influence over the new PM.