Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a press conference at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday. Kishida confirmed that he will not seek re-election as head of the Liberal Democratic Party next month, essentially meaning the end of his premiership. Photo by Philip Fong/EPA-EFE
Aug. 14 (UPI) — Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan announced Wednesday that he will be stepping down, ending his three-year tenure at the helm of the Asian nation as he attempts to relieve pressure from his political party that has been subsumed by a slush-fund scandal.
The 67-year-old made the sudden announcement in a 11:30 a.m. local time press conference, stating he will not run in next month’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential race, the winner of which will be Japan’s next leader.
“As a first step to impress on the public that the LDP has changed, I have decided not to run in the presidential race,” Kishida said, Kyodo News reported, adding that members of his party should “work as one” under new leadership to restore public trust.
Since late last year, Kishida’s Cabinet has seen a dropping approval rating after it was revealed that members were involved in a political fundraising scandal.
Kishida has sought to regain public trust through dissolving responsible factions within his party and punish lawmakers. During his announcement Wednesday, he said the next step toward achieving that goal was to resign.
“I don’t have any hesitation in taking responsibility as the head of the party for the serious situation caused by lawmakers belonging to it,” he said Wednesday, NHK reported. “I want to take responsibility by stepping down at a time when the diplomatic schedule has wound down for the time being.”
He declined to state whom he supports to take up the country’s helm, and said that he will continue to serve after stepping down as a “rank-and-file” lawmaker.
Kishida, a former foreign minister, was elected Japan’s prime minister in late 2021 following the resignation of Yoshide Suga, who spent only a year in office.
The announcement of Kishida’s resignation comes on the heels of an NHK poll published last week showing his Cabinet has an approval rating of 25%.
Kenta Izumi, leader of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, remarked in a press conference following the announcement that he believed Kishida felt “a sense of frustration” that he couldn’t implement further reforms following the scandal.
He added that it is a common tactic of the LDP to simply change their leader when confronted by scandal.
“We should not be fooled by this,” he said, stating the party remains essentially the same.
“There are still many lawmakers who have neither clarified the issues related to secret funds, returned any of the money, nor paid taxes on it, and yet they remain in office.”