Important Takeaways:

• Kishida’s resignation opens the door to a chaotic era
• The prime minister’s decision not to seek another term may set up Japan’s most exciting race for a leader in years.
• Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party will elect its new leader late next month, and in recent weeks, the momentum in Tokyo had been swinging one way: That the unpopular but famously stubborn Kishida would run, and win, as potential successors demurred and bided their time for a better opportunity.
• That momentum suddenly ran out Wednesday when the prime minister announced he wouldn’t seek another term as LDP head, effectively tendering his resignation and throwing the race for Japan’s next leader into chaos.
• Parallels are there to be drawn with Joe Biden, the US president with whom he deepened the bilateral alliance.
• This time, all bets are off — at least right now. Up against a weak opposition, the LDP almost always wins national elections.
• But potential challengers should take a tip from Kishida, known to be a voracious reader. One of the prime minister’s favorite books is reportedly Crime & Punishment. Dostoyevsky writes that “power is only vouchsafed to the man who dares to stoop and pick it up… one has only to dare.”

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