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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Wednesday that he would not seek re-election as party chief even as he announced to quit after serving for a long time.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party since 1945 has governed the country and is due to hold a leadership contest by next month where a new prime minister will emerge.
“In this (party) presidential election, it is necessary to show the people that the LDP is changing and the party is a new LDP,” Kishida told reporters in Tokyo.
“For this, transparent and open elections and free and vigorous debate are important. The most obvious first step to show that the LDP will change is for me to step aside,” he said.
Kishida, 67, who has been in office since October 2021, has seen his and his party’s poll ratings slide sharply in response to rising prices hitting Japanese incomes and several scandals.
In November, Kishida announced a stimulus package worth 17 trillion yen (more than $100 billion at the time) as he tried to ease the pressure from inflation and rescue his premiership.
But this failed to make him any less unpopular, both among voters in the world’s fourth-largest economy and within his own party.
Kishida, who last year escaped a pipe-bomb attack unscathed, has also faced severe criticisms over a major kickbacks scandal linked to fundraising parties.
Kishida decided to jump because he knew he would lose the leadership battle, said Koichi Nakano, political science professor at Sophia University.
The Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported that some LDP members have high hopes for Shigeru Ishiba, former party number two, and Shinjiro Koizumi, former environment minister and son of ex-premier Junichiro Koizumi.
