Japan's ruling party kicks off campaigning for leadership election

Campaigning for the Japanese ruling party's leadership election to choose the successor to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga officially started Friday, with four veteran lawmakers vying over policy steps to better fight the novel coronavirus and deal with an increasingly assertive China and other challenges facing the country.In a tightly contested race for the Sept. 29 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, vaccination minister Taro Kono, a reform-minded maverick in the conservative party, who in the past has ruffled feathers by opposing nuclear energy and abandoning a costly missile …READ FULL ARTICLE