Takaichi to forgo foreign trips this summer following Kumamoto quake

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will refrain from making overseas trips this summer, with the exception of a possible trip to New York for a U.N. General Assembly session in late September, informed sources said Monday.

Takaichi will stay at home to prioritize the response to a powerful earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture last month.

Prime ministers often travel abroad from July to September, a period that falls in-between Diet sessions.

Among recent former prime ministers, Fumio Kishida visited the United States and Germany in July 2024 and South Korea that September, and Shigeru Ishiba, Takaichi’s immediate predecessor, traveled to South Korea in September 2025.

This year, a special session of parliament was convened in place of the ordinary session because an election for the Lower House was held in February. The special session ran until July 25, including an eight-day extension.

The Kumamoto earthquake struck three days later, so Takaichi, who took office last October, will not travel abroad this summer, multiple government officials said.

At Monday’s meeting of the government’s disaster response headquarters, the prime minister instructed her staff to proactively move ahead with necessary relief measures.

Apart from the quake response, the Takaichi administration plans to adopt a tax system reform package next month that would pave the way for realizing her goal of lowering the consumption tax rate on food.

In addition, Takaichi is considering reshuffling her Cabinet and the leadership team of her ruling Liberal Democratic Party in September.