Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will not run for re-election in the general election

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Wednesday that he would not run in the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election scheduled for next month.

Kishida told a news conference that it was important for the LDP to have a new face at the helm and that the “first step” would be for him to resign, according to a Reuters translation. He added that he felt the need to resign so that the LDP could regain public trust.

The Prime Minister also pledged his full support to the new leader.

Kishida’s decision not to run for re-election means he will step down as prime minister when the party elects a new leader.

He said the decision was made taking into account what was best for the country’s people and that in order to completely get the country’s economy out of deflation, it was necessary to promote growth in wages and investments.

The administration has been mired in a political financing scandal involving the misallocation and underreporting of funds from fundraising parties, leading to the arrests of the ministers involved. In early January, Kishida dissolved the ruling party’s largest faction in the wake of the scandal.

Kishida also said he had “no hesitation” in taking responsibility as LDP leader “for problems caused by members,” and that he had been reflecting on his responsibility as leader since the funding scandal broke.

Local TV station Kyodo and NHK TV station reported the news earlier.

According to the latest opinion poll conducted by NHK, the number of people who “support” the Kishida government stands at 25 percent, while 55 percent do not.

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