Loading ...Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said today he would step down as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) next month, bringing his premiership to an early end.
The party has been dogged by revelations of ties to the Korean-based Unification Church in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022, as well as a political fundraising scandal uncovered last November.
Kishida dissolved his own powerful faction in the party and pressured the largest conservative faction, formerly headed by Abe, to dissolve itself in the wake of the scandal. Up to 80 LDP members of the Diet (Japan’s parliament) were implicated, and four cabinet ministers resigned.