Wednesday, August 14, 2024 –Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida on Wednesday, August 14 set the stage for his departure as premier after three years in power by announcing he will not run in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential race next month to take responsibility for a slush funds scandal.
The sudden announcement came as
Kishida's Cabinet stepped up disaster preparedness after the weather agency
last week issued its first-ever advisory warning of the increased risk of a
megaquake along the Nankai Trough that stretches from central to southwestern
Japan in the Pacific.
"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 at a press conference at the prime
minister's office, adding he had made the choice at a time when he was free of
immediate diplomatic commitments.
LDP lawmakers "should work as
one" under a new leader to restore public trust in politics and address
various challenges such as implementing measures to curb the declining
birthrate in an aging society and to bolster defense capabilities, he said.
Kishida, who hosted the Group of
Seven (G7) summit in his home constituency of Hiroshima in 2023, has seen the
approval ratings for his Cabinet, launched in October 2021, plunge to the 20
percent range in the wake of the scandal, which first broke late last year.
The eighth premier since 1945 to reach
1,000 days in office, Kishida said he will continue to serve as a
"rank-and-file" LDP lawmaker, while declining to comment on who would
be the best choice for next party chief and prime minister.
Both Kishida and his immediate
predecessor Yoshihide Suga were forced to give up seeking reelection as LDP
leader, making former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who resigned in September
2020, the last LDP chief to win reelection.
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