Ex-Japan defense chief open to run for prime minister

Taipei, Aug. 14 (CNA) Former Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in Taipei Wednesday that he is willing to run for prime minister if he gets enough in-party support, after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced he would not run for re-election.

Kishida said Wednesday he would step down as prime minister next month, after a three-year tenure marked by scandal and declining public support.

The 67-year-old Ishiba, who has previously run to lead Japan's long-time ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on four separate occasions, is widely seen as a top contender to succeed Kishida.

Asked if he was interested in running for LDP leader again, Ishiba, who is currently in Taiwan on a three-day trip, said at a press event in Taipei that he was open to the idea.

Speaking through an interpreter, Ishiba said he would need the support of at least 20 of the 371 LDP members in the two chambers of Japan's parliament to make a run for LDP chief.

"If there are 20 [parliamentarians] willing to recommend me, of course I am willing to run [for prime minister]," he said.

Meanwhile, when asked if Japan would defend Taiwan if war were to break out in the Taiwan Strait, Ishiba said the top priority for Tokyo was to make sure such a scenario would never happen.

He also noted that Japan's possible responses to cross-strait conflicts were not something that should be shared publicly at a press event.

Ishiba is leading a group of six cross-party Diet members focused on security issues on a visit to Taiwan that was to end later Wednesday.

When meeting with President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) in the Presidential Office on Tuesday, Ishiba said he believed that developments in the global landscape over the past several years have been "unsettling," in particularly the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The senior Diet member said there is a saying in Japan that "Today's Ukraine might become tomorrow's East Asia," and he believed the most pressing need at present was to prevent that saying from coming true.

He said that only by the democratic community "standing shoulder to shoulder to demonstrate the strength of deterrence" can the region uphold peace and stability.