Japan’s ruling party may struggle in Sunday’s vote, but its decades of dominance won’t end

Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s ruling party, dogged by corruption scandals and plunging support for his weeks-old government, faces its toughest challenge in decades in Sunday’s parliamentary election. This could set up a very short-lived time in office for Ishiba. But even if he falls, it won’t hurt his Liberal Democratic Party. That’s because the party, which has had a stranglehold on power in Japan since 1955, easily dominates a fractured, weak opposition, which has only ruled twice, and briefly, during that time. Analysts expect the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan to significantly gain ground, but not enough to change the government.