Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced he will not run for reelection in the upcoming party leadership vote, in a surprise announcement on Wednesday.
The move paves the way for Japan to have a new prime minister, with Mr Kishida’s three-year term expiring in September.
Mr Kishida was elected president of his governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 2021.
His drop out of the race means a new leader who wins the party vote will succeed him as prime minister because the LDP controls both houses of parliament.
Mr Kishida, stung by his party’s corruption scandals, has suffered dwindling support ratings that have dipped below 20%.
He announced he will not run in the September vote to make room for a fresh leader to show that his party is changing for the better.
Mr Kishida said he would throw his support behind whoever becomes the new leader.
Since the corruption scandal broke, Mr Kishida has removed several cabinet ministers and others from party executive posts, dissolved party factions that were criticised as the source of money-for-favour politics, and amended a law that aims to control political funds and payments to crack down on ministers fail to appropriately report income.
Despite Mr Kishida’s best efforts, support for his government has still dwindled.
The scandal centres around the unreported political funds raised through tickets sold for party events.
It involved more than 80 LDP lawmakers, mostly belonging to a major party faction previously led by assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
In January, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office indicted the treasurers of the LDP’s Abe and Shisuikai factions for violating the Political Funds Control Law by failing to report party incomes over five years.
The treasurers of both factions were indicted on charges of making false statements in violation of that law.
In total, 10 people — three LDP lawmakers and seven others — have been indicted.
