As gift voucher scandal plagues PM Ishiba, ruling LDP faces reckoning in Japan

Shigeru Ishiba, Japan's prime minister and president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), second left, raises his fist with other party members during the party's annual convention in Tokyo, Japan, on Sunday, March 9, 2025. - Bloomberg

TOKYO: A sense of crisis is building within Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as its status as the ruling party is again in jeopardy after a series of money-related scandals.

The LDP has had nearly uninterrupted rule since its founding in 1955, save for two spells outside of power from 1993 to 1994, and from 2009 to 2012.