Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga intends to step down from his post after a year in office, according to a Kyodo News report.
Suga announced his intention in an emergency meeting of senior members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) today.
He also has no plans to run in the party's elections later this month, on the grounds that he wants to pay full attention to efforts to curb Covid-19.
General elections are scheduled to take place on or before November 28, 2021. Whoever is elected leader of the LDP, has a great chance of becoming prime minister because of the party's dominance in parliament.
Suga, who took over the leadership after Shinzo Abe resigned last September due to his health, has seen a decline of below 30% in his support as the country struggles with a wave of coronavirus infections.
He also faced criticism after deciding to host the Tokyo Olympics, despite ongoing health emergencies implemented almost nationwide.
Fumio Kishida, the former foreign minister, will contest for the post of party leader. On Thursday, Kishida criticized Suga’s coronavirus response and demanded a larger stimulus package be issued to combat the outbreak.
The USD/JPY pair, which had initially declined, rebounded to trade at the 110.00 price level as an initial reaction to Japanese political news.
