Newsman: Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he will step down. Kishida in a televised news conference on Wednesday announced that he would not run for reelection next month as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP. Fumio Kishida is the Japan’s eighth-longest-serving prime minister since World War II.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he will step down in September, ending a three-year term blemished by political scandals. Kishida’s public support eroded amid revelations about the party’s ties to the controversial Unification Church, and more recently, unrecorded political donations made at LDP fundraising parties.
“I will continue to do everything I can as prime minister until then end of my term in September,” Kishida said.
“It is necessary to clearly demonstrate to citizens that the LDP is changing,” he told reporters. “The first and most obvious step to show this is for me to step down.”
Kishida’s term as LDP president ends in September. The party will elect a new leader, and the nation’s parliament, where the LDP holds a majority in the lower house, will vote the new leader in as premier.
