Calls for Ishiba to Step Down Quickly Growing Within LDP, Govt; August Schedule Makes Timing Difficult

The Yomiuri Shimbun

18:33 JST, July 26, 2025

Calls for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, to step down quickly are growing within the party and the government.

Signatures have been collected to demand a general meeting of LDP lawmakers from both the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors. According to the party constitution, if more than one-third of LDP lawmakers request it, a general meeting must be convened within seven days.

If the prime minister does not clarify the time frame for his resignation at an informal meeting of LDP lawmakers scheduled for Monday, a group led by state minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries Hiroyoshi Sasagawa plans to demand the general meeting.

“We have cleared the one-third threshold,” Sasagawa, who played a key role in collecting signatures, told reporters at the Diet Building. “We will see what the prime minister has to say at the [Monday] meeting.”

Sasagawa was a member of the now defunct Motegi faction. Former members of that faction, the also defunct Abe and Nikai factions, and the Aso faction played a leading role in collecting signatures. The general meeting of members from both houses is the party’s institutional decision-making organ and has the authority to decide on important matters such as party operations.

The stated purpose of Monday’s meeting is to hear opinions from LDP members about the results of the upper house election, but within the party there are concerns that it may merely serve as a venue for venting frustration.

“We will attend the informal meeting ready to demand a general meeting and put pressure on the prime minister,” a mid-career member of the former Nikai faction who participated in the signature campaign said.

Young members take action

The LDP Youth Division submitted an urgent request to Secretary General Hiroshi Moriyama on Friday, demanding that the prime minister take responsibility.

“We want [Ishiba] to review and summarize the three elections and take responsibility as soon as possible,” lower house LDP lawmaker Yasutaka Nakasone, director of the Youth Division, told reporters after submitting the request at the party headquarters.

In the request, the Youth Division said, “The president and other party executives should be aware of their responsibility” for the crushing defeats in last year’s lower house election, last month’s Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election and last week’s upper house election. The request went on to say, “After promptly reviewing the elections, they should take responsibility.”

The Youth Division is the LDP’s organization that represents the voices of mid-career and young party members nationwide, whose members are under 45 years old and have been elected to the lower house four times or less and to the upper house twice or less.

“There is a strong sense of crisis in regional areas that ‘if things continue as they are, the LDP will come to an end,’” Nakasone said.

Busy schedule adds to challenges

Ishiba and other LDP executives are struggling to decide the timing of his resignation announcement.

A veteran LDP member said, “If the prime minister does not announce his resignation at the beginning of the [Monday] meeting, it will undoubtedly devolve into chaos.”

However, there are also voices among LDP executives who are concerned that announcing his resignation on Monday would affect the extraordinary session of the Diet scheduled to convene on Friday. The ruling parties have proposed to the opposition a schedule that includes the election of president and vice president of the upper house and sets the Aug. 5 as being the final day.

“If Ishiba announces his resignation before the end of the session, the opposition will demand a prime ministerial election during the session, which would cause confusion,” an LDP executive said.

There will be a number of national events from Aug. 6, including ceremonies commemorating the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, followed by a national memorial service for the war dead on Aug. 15. As this year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the prime minister is said to be keen to attend those occasions.

The 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development will be held in Yokohama from Aug. 20 to 22.

The party plans to compile a review of the upper house election results in August, so there is a view withing the party that Ishiba should delay the announcement of his resignation until after it is completed.

However, with pressure growing on the prime minister to step down quickly, even key figures in the administration who support the prime minister believe that it will be difficult to postpone the announcement.

“He can only deal with what is in front of him day by day. It would be good if he can make it through the week,” an aide to the prime minister said.