TOKYO -- Although the prime minister's leadership has grown stronger, Japan's party politics are adrift. The Liberal Democratic Party's Policy Research Council, its policy coordination body where lawmakers from the "policy tribes" once were active, is a shell of its former self. The Komeito party, which joined the LDP to form the ruling coalition in 1999, has also been coordinating less with the LDP itself and focusing more on strengthening its ties with the prime minister's office.
"Can you set up an Article 79 agency and move ahead with it?" On April 1, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, also the LDP president, discussed one of his policy ideas with LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai at the prime minister's office.
