Japan’s prime minister has said he is to resign following the fallout following calls from his party to take responsibility for a disastrous defeat in July’s election.
The public broadcaster NHK said Shigeru Ishiba made the decision to avoid a divide within the party, while the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said he was unable to withstand the mounting calls for his resignation.
The conservative LDP and its junior partner Komeito needed to win 50 seats to retain control of the upper chamber, but won 47, as the coalition saw its vote eroded by an increase in support for far-right nationalist parties.
Ishiba called a press conference at 6pm (local time) on Sunday in Tokyo where he said he intended to resign as LDP president and would stay on as prime minister until a new leader is elected.
He told the press conference that he had decided ‘this is the right timing’ to step down having agreed a deal to alleviate US tarrifs on Japanese imports.
He said he had asked the LDP’s general secretary to begin organising a party leadership election immediately.
Ishiba referenced the economic challenges that the country has been facing, saying his administration had worked to help ‘those who are suffering’, to strengthen the struggling yen and to bring down the soaring cost of key daily staples like rice.
‘The US-Japan alliance is making progress,’ he said.
‘I had calls and meetings with US president Donald Trump many times. We will strengthen our relationship with the United States, that is of course something that we need to do.’
He said it was ‘a pity’ that he had to step down now rather than continue his diplomatic efforts, but that he would pass the torch to the next leader.
Ishiba said it was a ‘very difficult decision’ to step down, but he took responsibility for July’s election loss and that he was concerned about growing internal divisions within the LDP.
He warned that an erosion of trust in the country’s moderate conservative party risked seeing Japanese politics ‘slide towards popularism’.
The politician’s move comes a day before his Liberal Democratic is due to decide whether to hold an early leadership election – a virtual no-confidence motion against him if approved.
Ishiba said he would start a process to hold a party leadership vote to choose his replacement and that there was no need for Monday’s decision.
In July, Ishiba’s ruling coalition failed to secure a majority in the 248-seat upper house in a crucial parliamentary election, further shaking the stability of his government.
It comes just two months after Ishiba vowed not to quit despite exit polls indicating that his ruling Liberal Democratic party had lost control of the upper house.
Speaking after polls closed, the prime minister said he ‘solemnly’ accepted the ‘harsh result’ but that his focus was on trade negotiations.
‘It’s a difficult situation, and we have to take it very humbly and seriously,’ Ishiba told broadcaster NHK.
‘We can’t do anything until we see the final results, but we want to be very aware of our responsibility,’ Ishiba added.
Ishiba, a self-confessed defence ‘geek’, is the son of a regional governor and is from Japan’s small Christian minority.
Seen as a safe pair of hands, he won the party leadership in September, on his fifth try, to become the LDP’s 10th separate prime minister since 2000, all of them men.
Ishiba pledged to ‘create a new Japan’ and revitalise depressed rural regions, and to address the ‘quiet emergency’ of Japan’s shrinking population.
He immediately called lower house elections for October but that backfired spectacularly, with the LDP suffering its worst result in 15 years.
That robbed the LDP and its coalition party Komeito of their majority, forcing them to bargain with opposition parties to pass legislation.
Ishiba, the father of two daughters, also appointed only two women to his cabinet, down from five under predecessor Fumio Kishida.
His sometimes clumsy ways – ranging from the less-than-perfectly tidy arrangement of his tuxedo to his table manners – have also been rich fodder for social media memes.
He drew ridicule after being snapped apparently napping in parliament and for failing to stand up to greet other world leaders at a gathering in South America.
Worse was a video that emerged of Ishiba eating an onigiri rice ball – a popular snack – whole and munching on it without closing his mouth.
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