Politics & Government

Japan Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba Likely to Step down Following Japan-U.S. Trade Deal

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:50 JST, July 23, 2025

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba intends to step down, following the conclusion of a Japan-U.S. tariff agreement, sources have told The Yomiuri Shimbun.

Ishiba, who is also the president of the Liberal Democratic Party, is expected to officially announce his resignation as early as the end of the month.

After the LDP-Komeito ruling coalition suffered a crushing defeat in Sunday’s House of Councillors election, Ishiba said Monday that he would stay in office, citing the need to deal with such issues as the U.S. tariff measures. “We must fulfill our responsibility as the largest party in the Diet,” Ishiba said at a press conference. But there were growing calls within the LDP for Ishiba to step down.

Ishiba is believed to have told those around him that because Japan and the United States had now concluded their tariff negotiations, which had been the biggest pending issue between the two countries, he would take responsibility for the election results by stepping down.

The LDP will now begin discussing when to schedule a presidential election to select a successor.

“I will make a final decision [on whether to step down] based on the results of the tariff negotiations. I cannot comment further until I have carefully examined the details of the agreement,” Ishiba told reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday morning. He also indicated his intention to hold a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Economic revitalization minister Ryosei Akazawa, who held ministerial talks on tariffs in Washington on Monday, is expected to return home as early as Thursday. Ishiba is expected to decide when to announce his resignation and when that resignation will become effective after receiving a detailed report on the agreement from Akazawa, taking into consideration the possibility of a Japan-U.S. summit meeting and other items on the political schedule.

On Tuesday evening, Ishiba told those around him that the tariff negotiations are a matter of national interest, and that he will explain how he will take responsibility for the results of the upper house election once there are clear prospects for the negotiations to be resolved. He said Wednesday that his stance remained unchanged.

The party also suffered severe losses in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election in June and the House of Representatives election in October last year.

After Ishiba’s announcement that he would stay in office, dissatisfaction was spreading throughout the party, along with movements toward ousting him. Given these factors, along with a lack of progress in coordinating a partial coalition, in which the ruling parties would cooperate with opposition parties on a policy-by-policy basis, Ishiba is believed to have decided that his resignation would be necessary for the party to be rebuilt.

On Tuesday, some mid-level LDP lawmakers and others wanting the prime minister to step down launched a campaign to collect signatures in support of that goal.

The LDP and Komeito won only 47 seats in Sunday’s election, significantly down from the combined 66 seats they were defending, and falling short of the 50 seats that Ishiba had set as a “must-win target.”