Ishiba announced his resignation by the end of July in an extra edition of The Yomiuri Shimbun, which opened the door for a party leadership vote to choose his successor, according to an additional edition published on Wednesday.
The 68-year-old leader told reporters at the party’s headquarters on Wednesday, “I have never made such a statement…The facts reported in the media are completely unfounded.”
The reports came after Ishiba and US President Donald Trump unveiled a trade agreement on Tuesday that lowers import duties on Japanese automobiles and prevents Tokyo from imposing new tariffs on other products.
Ishiba had previously stated his intention to continue working on Monday in an effort to address pressing issues, including tariff negotiations with the US, without creating a political vacuum, which has sparked calls from both his party’s insiders and outsiders for a swift resignation in response to the election results.
As the centre-right LDP and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, are under increasing pressure to step down, Ishiba has slammed his hold on power and political stability in Japan. They lost their majority on Sunday in the smaller and less powerful two-chamber parliament, the upper house, which was reduced to 248.
Three years after the US began to rule the nation following World War II, the LDP has been in power almost continuously since 1955.
The ruling coalition now lacks a majority in both houses of parliament, making it even harder for his government to achieve any policy objectives and exacerbate Japan’s political unrest. It also lost a majority in the more powerful lower house in October.
Ishiba praised the trade agreement on Wednesday, which reduces the initial 25% before the August 1 deadline to 15% on imported Japanese goods into the US from Japan, saying it was the result of long-fought negotiations to advance both countries’ efforts to create more jobs and investment.
However, some analysts criticized it as being “not a good deal at all.” People should consider whether the trade deal is beneficial for Japan, according to Seijiro Takeshita, dean of the Graduate School of Management, Informatics, and Innovation at the University of Shizuoka.
voters frustrated with price increases exceeding the rate of wage increases, particularly younger people who have long felt ignored by the government’s focus on senior voters, quickly turned to emerging conservative and right-wing populist parties, such as the “Japanese First” Sanseito far-right group, which gained significantly in the vote on Sunday.
As the ruling LDP battles these difficulties from new political parties, especially those on the right, that are squandering its support, Ishiba’s potential departure less than a year after taking office would spark a succession fight within it.
An LDP funding scandal has also caused anger.
Naomi Omura, an 80-year-old Hiroshima resident, told the AFP news agency, “I really hope things will improve in Japan, but the population is declining, and I think living there will get tougher and tougher.”
Although “I think it was good that they agreed on a lower tariff,” she said, “It is disappointing that Japan cannot act more strongly” toward the US.
Source: Aljazeera
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