Japan’s ruling party is in crisis as voters swing to right-wing rivals. Can a new leader save it?

By Jessie Yeung, Hanako Montgomery, CNNTokyo (CNN) — Japan’s ruling party is in trouble, and it knows it. Japan’s political volatility began after Shinzo Abe stepped down as prime minister in 2020. Another, who could be Japan’s youngest postwar prime minister, bills himself as a moderate reformist. For instance, the cost of rice – Japan’s prime staple food – has almost doubled from last year, staying stubbornly high even after authorities released emergency reserves and imported foreign rice. Then comes the real work of actually governing the world’s fourth-largest economy, with the future prime minister inheriting a slate of thorny issues.