Fumio Kishida announced that he will step down as Japan’s prime minister in September to promote government renewal

International Press

Tokio.-Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Wednesday that he will resign from his post as head of his party and the government in order to promote “a change” and “a renewal” in the ruling party.

Kishida said at a press conference that his party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), “must show the public that it has changed and renewed itself” ahead of the internal elections scheduled for next month, and said that his resignation is “the best way” to do so.

He added that “for this, transparent and open elections and a free and vigorous debate are important. The most obvious first step to show that the PLD is going to change is for me to step aside.”

The Japanese president explained that his resignation aims to “assume responsibility” and “regain public confidence” in the LDP, following the scandal of irregular financing that triggered a crisis within the party at the end of last year and sank the prime minister’s popularity ratings.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Kishida made public his decision not to stand for re-election as chairman of the ruling conservative party in the primaries to be held towards the end of September, which had been reported by local media earlier in the day.

This means that the politician will resign as prime minister once the new president of the conservative LDP, which governs with a large majority with the Buddhist Komeito party, is elected.

Although Kishida’s term as prime minister expires next year after he took office in October 2021, his continuation in this position was tied to his continuing to serve as LDP president.

Kishida expressed his pride in his work during these three years at the head of the Japanese government, and on a national level he highlighted his strategy to “introduce a new capitalism”, combat climate change and halt the decline in the birth rate.

In foreign policy, he highlighted the G7 summit held in Hiroshima last year, the strengthening of the security alliance with the United States and the improvement of relations with neighbouring South Korea and with countries of the “global South”, all in the context of growing “division” in the international community.

Kishida and his party were plunged into a deep crisis at the end of last year, when the scandal of irregular financing of several of the factions or political subgroups that make up the ruling party came to light.

This case led the Prime Minister to undertake a purge within the party, deep structural changes in it and a reform of his Cabinet, and although it ended up in the hands of the Japanese justice system, it has not had legal consequences for any of its heavyweights.

However, the elimination of traditional factions within the LDP, including one led by Kishida himself and another once headed by historic former president Shinzo Abe, left the current prime minister in a weak position within the party.

Kishida took office as prime minister in early October 2021, after winning his party’s primaries. Later that month, he also won support at the polls, when the LDP revalidated its large majority in a general election.

There are currently no clear candidates to succeed him at the head of the LDP, the party that has governed Japan almost uninterruptedly since 1955.

The prime minister “appears to have decided that he himself must take responsibility for dispelling the growing distrust” towards the government and the party, national television NHK reported.

Under Kishida, Japan has pledged to double its defense spending by 2027 to the 2% of GDP recommended by NATO, an alliance of which it is not a member but to which it is close.Infobae.