Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Wednesday he would not run for leadership in the September elections of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), leaving open the race for premiership of America’s closest ally on the front lines of the fight to contain China.
Kishida made the decision to step aside in the context of a corruption scandal that rocked the party and drove down public support in polls to around 20 percent. Public dissatisfaction with a high cost of living has also contributed to low confidence in the government.
Kishida was never implicated in the scandal, where a number of lawmakers and political aides were indicted for pocketing political funds. But he described in his decision to step down the need for increased transparency in the party, open elections and serious discussions about what leadership of the party means.
“We need to show the LDP will change and … the first step for us is that I step down as the leader of LDP,” Kishida said at a Wednesday news conference.
“I am not going to run for the forthcoming leader election for LDP.”
The LDP controls both houses of Japan’s parliament, and whoever is elected to lead the party will be endorsed for prime minister in a parliamentary vote soon after.
September marks the end of Kishida’s three-year term as party head, a period that marked a tightening of ties with the U.S. amid major geopolitical crises.
Kishida has promoted supporting Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia as inseparable from the security situation in the Indo-Pacific, warning that a victory by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine would embolden Chinese President Xi Jinping to carry out aggression in the region.
President Biden has embraced Kishida as a key partner in the administration’s strategy of supporting Ukraine and building up alliances in the Indo-Pacific to counter China’s ambitions. Biden convened a historic summit between Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at Camp David in August 2023, marking a major easing of tensions between Tokyo and Seoul and a signal of deepening cooperation against shared threats from China and North Korea.
Biden further welcomed Kishida to Washington for a state visit in April, with the White House describing the alliance between Washington and Tokyo as reaching “unprecedented heights” under his leadership.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel echoed that sentiment in a statement Wednesday responding to Kishida’s resignation.
“Under Prime Minister Kishida’s steadfast leadership, Japan and the United States have ushered in a new era of relations for the Alliance,” he said.
“Working side-by-side with President Biden, Prime Minister Kishida helped build a lattice-work of security alliances and partnerships across the Indo-Pacific region that will stand the test of time.”