Editorial

16:18 JST, September 8, 2025

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba finally announced his intention to step down. It could be thought that he avoided a decisive split within the Liberal Democratic Party by making the decision to resign himself.

However, the LDP and its ruling coalition partner Komeito suffered defeats in the House of Representatives and House of Councillors elections and lost their majority in both Diet chambers. As the opposition parties had taken the position of not cooperating with the Ishiba administration, it was evident that government operations would reach a deadlock. It must be said that the prime minister’s decision on whether to stay or leave came too late.

With the prime minister’s announcement of his resignation, the LDP was able to avoid a split, and a leadership election to determine Ishiba’s successor will be held. The new LDP president will have to bear the responsibility of building a constructive cooperative relationship with the opposition parties through efforts including the possible expansion of the coalition.

Regarding the reason for deciding to step down, Ishiba said at a press conference, “With U.S. tariff measures having reached a conclusion, I believed now is the appropriate time.”

The LDP was moving forward with procedures to determine whether to hold an early leadership election based on Clause 4 of Article 6 under the party’s constitution in order to hold the prime minister accountable for consecutive election defeats. An early presidential election were to be held if a majority of the total number of LDP lawmakers and party prefectural chapter........

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