Has Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed his decision to resign? No, that's not true: There is no evidence of such a decision or plan from the Prime Minister's office and from reliable news agencies that cover the Prime Minister and political activities in Japan.
The claim appeared on TikTok (archived here) by user @hiroki.money on November 28, 2023, which continues to circulate, with a caption translated into English from Japanese by Lead Stories staff that reads:
Emergency report: Prime Minister Kishida confirms his decision to resign.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Feb 16 21:19:20 2024 UTC)
The Prime Minister's Office of Japan website (archived here) contains no announcement regarding an alleged decision to resign, even though the website is regularly updated to reflect the plans and priorities of the Prime Minister. The most recent post was curated on February 19, 2024 (archived here) detailing Kishida's meeting with Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, followed by a joint press announcement.
A Google search conducted by Lead Stories staff on February 19, 2024, in both English and Japanese, (archived here and here) using the following keywords: "Kishida AND 'resignation'" and "岸田首相辞任" did not return any result that could corroborate the claim. Rather than Kishida's resignation from the PM post, results show that he resigned from his political faction.
Government resignations recently reported (archived here and here) may have contributed to a "resignation domino" impression when Kishida reshuffled his Cabinet. Many notable members of Kishida's Cabinet, such as former Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Education, Sports, Science, and Technology, Taro Yamada (archived here), and former Deputy Minister of Justice Mito Kakizawa (archived here) have resigned. But to date, by all credible accounts, the Prime Minister has not offered, planned, or decided to resign.
