Ishiba Offers Apology to LDP Members over Election Defeat; Talks about Avoiding ‘Political Vacuum’

The Japan News

20:00 JST, July 28, 2025

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba offered an apology for the party’s crushing defeat in the House of Councillors election on July 20, at an informal meeting of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers from both the House of Representatives and the upper house at the party’s headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.

“Many of our fellow colleagues have lost their seats. For that I deeply and sincerely apologize,” said Ishiba, who also is the LDP president. “I have candidly reflected on why this result came about. I thank you and apologize to those who helped us in regional areas, the people at the party headquarters and those in LDP organizations.

“I want to sincerely listen to the opinions of the public. Why did this election result come about? Were our policies not acceptable? Was our approach deserving of criticism?”

Ishiba did not make any mention of resigning in his opening remarks. “I want to fulfill my responsibility not to create a political vacuum,” Ishiba said.

LDP Secretary General Hiroshi Moriyama said the party will set up an organization to review its performance in the upper house election. Moriyama said the new organization plans to release a report next month.

Talking about the Japan-U.S. tariff deal reached last week, Ishiba said, “We have to make utmost efforts to move the deal forward.” He added that the Japan-U.S. deal could be used as model for global trade.

Aside from the opening remarks by Ishiba and Moriyama, the meeting was closed to the media.