TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida resigned with his cabinet on Tuesday, paving the way for his likely successor Shigeru Ishiba to take office.
Kishida is leaving his office after taking charge in 2021, so his party can have a fresh leader after his government was dogged by scandals. Ishiba plans to call a parliamentary election for October 27 after he is formally chosen as prime minister later in the day.
“I believe it is important to have the new administration get the public’s judgment as soon as possible,” Ishiba said Monday in announcing his plan to call a snap election. Opposition parties criticized Ishiba for allowing only a short period of time for his policies to be examined and discussed in parliament before the national election.
Ishiba was chosen as the governing Liberal Democratic Party’s leader on last Friday to replace Kishida, who announced in August he would resign at the end of his three-year term.
Kishida and his ministers stepped down at a Cabinet meeting in the morning, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said. Kishida left his office after a brief send-off ceremony in which he was presented a bouquet of red roses and applauded by his staff and former Cabinet members.
“As we face a critical moment in and outside the country, I earnestly hope key policies that will pioneer Japan's future will be powerfully pursued by the new Cabinet,” Kishida said in a statement, citing the need to bolster security amid a deepening global divide, such as Russia's war in Ukraine, while tackling a declining birthrate and population, as well as economic and political reforms at home.
Ishiba earlier announced his party's leaders ahead of naming his Cabinet, once he becomes prime minister. Former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, who came in third in the party leadership race, will head the party’s election task force. He is expected to name defense experts Takeshi Iwaya as foreign minister and Gen Nakatani as defense chief.
The majority of his Cabinet ministers, like Ishiba, are expected to be unaffiliated with factions led and controlled by party heavyweights, and none are from former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's powerful group linked to damaging scandals.
Ishiba has proposed an Asian version of the NATO military alliance and more discussion among regional partners about the use of the U.S. nuclear deterrence. He also suggested a more equal Japan-U.S. security alliance, including joint management of U.S. bases in Japan and having Japanese Self Defense Force bases in the United States.
Ishiba on Friday stressed Japan needs to reinforce its security, noting recent violations of Japanese airspace by Russian and Chinese warplanes and repeated missile launches by North Korea.
Ishiba, first elected to parliament in 1986, has served as defense minister, agriculture minister and in other key Cabinet posts, and was LDP secretary general under Abe.
