Prime Minister Ishiba to Step down: Make Announcement Early to Allow Quick Formation of New Administration

Editorial

15:25 JST, July 25, 2025

Perhaps Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is thinking that he cannot toss out his administration given the schedule of important domestic and diplomatic events ahead.

However, if Ishiba, having now become a lame duck, delays the announcement of his resignation, he will only prolong the political chaos.

Ishiba initially indicated he would stay in office after his ruling coalition suffered a crushing defeat in the House of Councillors election, but now he likely is resolved to step down. It is believed that the conclusion of tariff negotiations with the United States prompted his decision to resign.

However, on the surface, Ishiba still asserts a desire to run the government. During a meeting with three former prime ministers — Taro Aso, Yoshihide Suga and Fumio Kishida — he made no clear statement on whether he would step down, he said.

In the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, including in its local organizations, there is a growing movement calling for Ishiba to step down. In accordance with party rules, a campaign has begun to collect signatures to bring forward the party presidential election. If a majority of the party’s Diet members and representatives from its prefectural chapters support this motion, a presidential election is supposed to be held.

When the party presidency becomes vacant part way through a presidential term, for example, the party rules allow for the LDP’s Diet members to vote on a leader at a general meeting of lawmakers in both houses, with no vote by rank-and-file members. This is meant to minimize as much as possible the risk of a political vacuum.

With Ishiba’s three consecutive losses as LDP president — in last year’s House of Representatives election, the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election and the recent upper house election — it is obvious that he no longer has the people’s trust. It is quite natural that there is a movement within the LDP calling for Ishiba to step down.

However, Ishiba has indicated he will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump after an agreement was reached in Japan-U.S. tariff talks.

In August, memorial services are scheduled to be held on the anniversaries of the end of World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), in which Japan has long taken the lead, will be held in Yokohama from Aug. 20 to 22. Ishiba plans to attend all of these events.

Lawmakers close to Ishiba believe that a formal announcement of his resignation will be made after these events.

However, if he delays his announcement, the party will not be able to officially start the process of choosing a new president. Japan’s credibility abroad will suffer if intra-party strife intensifies and politics continues to be unstable.

It would also be difficult for the ruling parties, which now comprise a minority in both houses of the Diet, to find a partner with whom to work toward a new coalition.

In fact, Yoshihiko Noda, president of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, has called for Ishiba’s resignation, saying, “Will he stay in office by ignoring the will of the people?” Seiji Maehara, co-representative of the Japan Innovation Party, has also rejected the idea of forming a coalition with the Ishiba administration, and indicated that if the JIP were to cooperate, it would be with a “post-Ishiba” LDP.

In order to quickly choose a new party president who can readily cooperate with the opposition, Ishiba should announce his resignation soon, taking the formal agreement in Japan-U.S. tariff talks as his main achievement in office.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 25, 2025)