《TAIPEI TIMES》 Japan’s Fumio Kishida to step down

/ AP, TOKYO

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida yesterday announced that he would not run in next month’s party leadership vote, paving the way for Japan to have a new prime minister.

Kishida was elected president of his governing Liberal Democratic Party （LDP） in 2021 and his three-year term expires next month. Whoever wins the party vote would succeed him as prime minister, as the LDP controls both houses of parliament.

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Kishida said that he would support the new leader.

“We need to clearly show an LDP reborn,” Kishida told a news conference. “In order to show a changing LDP, the most obvious first step is for me to bow out.”

“I will not run for the upcoming party leadership election,” he said.

Kishida has faced dwindling support ratings, which have dipped below 20 percent.

To achieve policies to tackle difficult situations in and outside Japan, regaining public trust in politics is crucial, Kishida said.

He called on aspiring party lawmakers to raise their hands to run for leadership and debate policies during the campaign.

“Once a new leader is decided, I hope to see everyone unite and form a dream team to achieve politics that can gain public understanding,” he said.

Kishida said he has been mulling his possible resignation for some time but waited until he could put his key policies on track, including an energy policy that calls for a return to nuclear power, a military buildup to deal with security threats in the region, and improving ties with South Korea, as well as political reforms.

Speculation on potential candidates has landed on a number of senior LDP lawmakers, including party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi, Minister of Digital Affairs Taro Kono, Minister of Economic Security Sanae Takaichi and Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoko Kamikawa.

In Taipei, former Japanese minister of defense Shigeru Ishiba said that he is willing to run for prime minister if he gets enough support from the party.

The 67-year-old Ishiba had run for LDP leadership four times before.

Asked if he was interested in running again, Ishiba, who is in Taiwan on a three-day trip, told reporters that he was open to the idea.

Speaking through an interpreter, Ishiba said he would need the support of at least 20 of the 371 LDP members in the two parliamentary chambers to make a run for LDP chief.

Asked if Japan would defend Taiwan if war were to break out in the Taiwan Strait, Ishiba said the top priority for Tokyo was to make sure such a scenario would never happen.

He also said that Japan’s possible responses to a cross-strait conflict were not something that should be shared publicly at a press event.

Ishiba is leading a group of six cross-party Diet members focused on security issues on a visit to Taiwan that was to end later yesterday.

Additional reporting by CNA

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES