(Tokyo) Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Wednesday his intention to withdraw from the race for his party’s leadership in September, meaning he will step down as head of government.
“In this election for the presidency [du parti]it is necessary to show the people that the PLD [le Parti libéral-démocrate au pouvoir] is changing. The most obvious first step to show that the LDP is going to change is for me to step down. I will not run in the next election for the party’s presidency,” Kishida said at a news conference.
“I took this difficult decision with the firm conviction that politics is possible only with the trust of the people and that we will move forward with political reform,” he added.
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has been in power in Japan almost without interruption since 1945, must organize an internal election in September to designate its leader, and therefore the person who will assume the functions of prime minister.
Fumio Kishida, 67, has been in office since October 2021 and has seen his popularity ratings plummet, severely weakened by inflation hitting Japanese households and political and financial scandals affecting the LDP.
His government’s approval rating has hovered around 25 percent this year, according to an NHK poll.
The world’s fourth-largest economy is also struggling to get back on track after the COVID-19 period, with industrial production down 0.7% in the first quarter of 2024.
Recovery plan
In November, Mr Kishida announced a stimulus package worth more than $100 billion at the time as he sought to ease inflation pressure.
Having seen prices stagnate for years, the Japanese have been unhappy with their rise since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, sending energy costs soaring.
Despite some recovery in recent weeks, the yen has been one of the world’s worst performing currencies over the past year, falling sharply against the dollar.
While this is mostly good news for Japanese exporters, it makes imports more expensive and fuels inflation.
Fumio Kishida, who oversaw improved relations with South Korea, could theoretically have ruled until fall 2025.
For months, his conservative right-wing party has been hit by a political funding scandal.
At the heart of the case are alleged payments to party members accused of exceeding ticket sales quotas for fundraisers.
From the moment he came to power, Mr Kishida had appeared as a compromise choice for the LDP.
This elected representative from Hiroshima (West) in the Lower House since 1993, like his father and grandfather before him, cultivated a spirit of consensus in the absence of convincing charisma.
As he led only a small, moderate parliamentary faction of the LDP, he constantly had to give pledges to other, more powerful currents of his party, notably its ultranationalist wing, which was controlled by his former mentor and ex-prime minister Shinzō Abe until his assassination in 2022.
This decision by Fumio Kishida to leave the head of the party and therefore the government, launches the race for his succession, which promises to be undecided. No leader appears obvious to replace him.
“In this election for the presidency, I hope that those who believe they have the required qualifications will actively raise their hands and engage in a serious debate,” said Fumio Kishida.