LDP President Fumio Kishida, center front, and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, far center background, are seen after casting their ballots in a Diet vote to elect the new prime minister, during a House of Representatives plenary session on Oct. 4, 2021. (Mainichi/Takehiko Onishi)

       TOKYO -- Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is reportedly struggling to maintain optimal distance from former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who retains strong influence in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as head of its largest intraparty faction.

       Abe's cooperation is imperative to run a stable administration. But gaps exist between Kishida's and Abe's stances on foreign, economic and fiscal policy. Is Abe obstructing Kishida's aspirations to set out policy measures of his own accord?

       On Dec. 23, after the extraordinary Diet session's closure, Prime Minister Kishida was seen bowing and saying "Thank you very much" as he left Abe's office in the Diet building. Kishida had brought Abe a gift of smoked oysters, a specialty of his home turf Hiroshima. "It was intended as a year-end greeting. There was no discussion of difficult topics," Kishida told reporters.

       According to an individual close to the prime minister's office, the "Abenomask" cloth masks the Abe government distributed to households nationwide to curb the coronavirus's spread was discussed. Kishida announced at a Dec. 21 press conference that due to mounting storage costs his government will dispose of surplus Abenomasks by the end of fiscal 2021.

       While Kishida called Abe ahead of the press conference to notify him of the plan, an aide to Kishida claimed the prime minister "thought he should seek understanding for scrapping the masks by seeing Abe in person again."

       Abe not only leads the LDP's largest faction; he also maintains a powerful influence on conservative voters -- the LDP's support base. Behind Kishida's stated eagerness to reform Japan's Constitution and his pledge to consider acquiring enemy base strike capabilities to strengthen the nation's missile-defense capacity is consideration toward Abe.

       Regardless of this, one mid-ranking LDP legislator said, "There is increasing strain in their relationship," -- something that is constantly being talked about. Kishida heads Kochikai, a traditionally dovish LDP faction favoring lightly armed forces and emphasis on the economy, while Abe's Seiwa Seisaku Kenkyukai (Seiwaken) is a leading hawkish faction.

       While Kishida is keen on maintaining fiscal prudence, Abe gives weight to boosting public spending. Their differing policy approaches surface at every juncture, and has led to speculation of an increasingly awkward relationship.

       Kishida's December policy speech in the Diet was emblematic of their policy stance gulf. Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, Abe's younger brother, requested the inclusion into the speech draft of a passage meant to keep China in check. It would have been something to the effect of: "The peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait cannot be looked as separate from Japan's security."

       Kishida asked that the matter be left to him, and ended up not including the passage. A source close to the prime minister's office explained, "We need to say what must be said to China, but there's no need to go out of our way to provoke the country."

       At a Dec. 6 Abe faction party in Tokyo, Kishida addressed attendees, stating, "Seiwaken (the Abe faction) traces its origin to the Tofu Sasshin Renmei group started by former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda. It was established to counter the then Kochikai and oppose Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda's income doubling plan. Sixty years on, we appreciate that Seiwaken stands behind the Kishida Cabinet's new capitalism doctrine." His speech was reportedly intended to emphasize a good relationship with the Abe faction.

       A senior official in the Kishida administration stressed, "There is no way Kishida would come into conflict with Abe by bringing intraparty friction to the fore." But points of contention appear to persist between the former and current leaders.

       (Japanese original by Shuhei Endo and Shun Kawaguchi, Political News Department)

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