Tokyo has come face-to-face with the impending end to old certitudes and emerging new fragilities. Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s resignation on Sunday, less than a year since taking office, has plunged the country into prolonged instability and portends more trouble for his fractured Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The writing has been on the wall for Ishiba’s exit since a July 20 election to half of the seats in parliament’s upper house, when the LDP—the country’s longest party in governance after World War II—and its coalition partner Komeito narrowly lost their majority. Two previous premiers were forced to demit office in 1998 and 2007 under similar circumstances, when the upper house majority was snatched from the LDP. The decisive blow in July........

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