Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has announced his resignation as president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), just weeks after its ruling coalition suffered a historic defeat in a July election, according to Al Jazeera.Ishiba’s decision to step down on Sunday comes after he initially resisted calls from within his party to resign over the electoral defeat in July, saying he wanted to make sure that a tariff deal struck with the United States was appropriately implemented.
Since assuming his role last year, the 68-year-old politician has seen electoral losses wipe out his coalition’s majority in both houses of parliament, with a bruising electoral defeat in October leaving it with a minority in the more powerful lower house.
The defeats, stoked by voters’ concerns about the rising cost of living, have made it more difficult for Ishiba’s government to implement its policy objectives.
Amid the country’s growing political instability, Ishiba has faced calls to resign from mostly right-wing opponents within his party, who urged him to take responsibility for the results of July’s vote.
Reports suggested that Japan’s agricultural minister and a former prime minister met Ishiba on Saturday evening to persuade him to resign.
Although the Prime Minister’s Office has yet to comment on reports of his resignation, the Japanese government confirmed that Ishiba would be addressing journalists later on Sunday, a day before the LDP was scheduled to vote on whether to hold an early leadership election.
His potential successors include the conservative Sanae Takaichi, who narrowly lost to Ishiba in last year’s LDP run-off election, and Shinjiro Koizumi, the current farming minister whose family has long been involved in Japanese politics.