TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida surprisingly announced Wednesday that he would not run in party leadership elections scheduled for September, paving the way for a new prime minister for Japan.
Kishida was elected president of the LDP in 2021, with his three-year term ending in September.
His withdrawal from the election means that the new leader who wins the party vote will succeed him as prime minister, as the LDP holds majorities in both houses of parliament.
Kishida has been hit hard by a corruption scandal within his party, causing his approval rating to plummet to below 20 percent.
To show the party was changing for the better, Kishida announced that he would not run in September’s election and would nominate a new leader, whom he said he would support.
Defeat in local elections earlier this year has weakened his influence, and LDP lawmakers are saying they need new faces ahead of the next general election.
After the corruption scandal came to light, Kishida dismissed cabinet ministers from the party executive, dismantled factions that were criticized as a source of money-based politics, and tightened the Political Funds Control Law, but support for his administration has waned.
The scandal involves unreported political funds raised through ticket sales to party events. More than 80 LDP lawmakers, most of them from the main faction once led by assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe, were implicated. Ten of the lawmakers and their aides were indicted in January.
