ISHIBA SHIGERU, Japan’s new minister primeknows what his colleagues think of him. “I have undoubtedly hurt many people’s feelings, caused unpleasant experiences and made many suffer,” he said apologetically in his final speech during the race for the leadership of the Liberal ruling Democratic Party (LDP). Throughout his 38 years in parliament, Mr Ishiba has been a gadfly. That outspokenness endedeared him to voters, but made him an outsider within the LDP. His first four leadership bids failed. Someone like him could win only if the LDP faced a major “roadblock” and “divine will” intervened, Mr Ishiba wrote in a book published this summer.