Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida has announced he will be stepping down as leader of the Liberal Democratic party next month. This means yet another new leader, the 13th in my quarter century in the country (unless one of the previous incumbents fancies another go) but almost certainly not a radical new direction.
Whoever wins the LDP leadership election will become prime minister, as the party controls both houses of parliament, though no general election need be held until 2025.
The announcement has been declared a ‘surprise’, but in truth, the resignation of a Japanese premier is never really that much of a surprise. It happens so regularly that there are jokes about enlivening the notoriously dull Japanese political scene by playing Queen’s anthem ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ at the resignation press conferences, or just installing a revolving door at the premier’s official residence at the Kotei (Japan’s No. 10).
To be fair, Kishida lasted longer than many, his three-year stint will make him, remarkably, the eighth longest serving post-war prime minister.
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