Japan’s head of government Ishiba apparently wants to step down

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba wants to announce his resignation until the end of the next month. This was reported by the “Mainichi” newspaper on Wednesday. Ishiba is under growing pressure in his Liberal Democratic Party after the election defeat on Sunday. His government had lost their majority in the elections to the Oberhaus on Sunday.

The reason for the disastrous election result was the dissatisfaction of the voters with the increasing prices and immigration policy. Right -wing populist small parties, such as the openly xenophobic party, benefited from this. It could grow significantly. Observers now fear a phase of political instability in Japan.

The daily newspaper “Yomiuri” reported that Ishiba announced its closest confidants on Tuesday evening that he would explain how he would take responsibility for the election defeat as soon as the trade conflict with the United States has been resolved. To reporters, the head of government said the question of what influence the agreement had on his possible resignation: “I can’t say anything about it before I have not checked the result of the agreement.”

Since then, Ishiba’s coalition has been a minority government. After the election defeat, he had announced that he wanted to stay in office and justified this that a power vacuum had to be avoided because Japan faces challenges. This also included negotiations with the United States on a trade agreement. It is expected that Ishiba will evaluate the election result in the course of Wednesday with influential party members.

However, more and more members of his party, which has been almost uninterrupted for decades, demanded that he take responsibility, reported Kyodo.

Note: This post has been updated.