Grapevine

By Al Jazeera
Aug 23, 2024

Japan’s ruling party to pick new leader, successor to PM Kishida next month

The winner of the Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election in September will also become the next prime minister.

Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is set to elect its new leader and the country’s next prime minister in September.

The party’s announcement on Tuesday came after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s sudden decision last week to step down amid low approval ratings and a corruption scandal within the LDP.

The internal election must be held by the end of September, which marks the end of Kishida’s three-year term, and will include the party’s parliamentarians and its 1.1 million dues-paying members.

The winner will be the head of the LDP and the next prime minister as the party and its smaller coalition partner control Japan’s two-chamber parliament.