Several figures have been mooted as possible successors including digital minister Taro Kono and economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, who would be Japan’s first female premier.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Wednesday he will step aside next month, ending a three-year term plagued by low popularity ratings and a spluttering economy.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed almost uninterrupted for decades, is due to hold a leadership contest in September, with the winner to become prime minister.
Kishida said Wednesday he would not seek re-election as party chief.
“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, 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 and within his own party in the world’s fourth-largest economy.
Along with inflation — for many Japanese voters an unfamiliar and unwelcome phenomenon — growth spluttered and the yen plummeted.
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