Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Sunday announced that he will resign after less than a year in office. Ishiba’s tenure, which began last October, has been marked by significant electoral setbacks for his governing coalition.
Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party lost its coalition majority in the upper house of Japan’s legislature in a July election. That electoral defeat followed the coalition losing its majority in the lower house last October, one month after a leadership election that Ishiba narrowly won.
The LDP has governed Japan since its formation in 1955 for all but six years. The party is a big-tent and contains multiple ideological factions, and is generally perceived to represent the country’s political establishment.
As a result of its recent electoral losses, the LDP and its similar coalition partner, the Komeito party, have been forced into a minority government.
The main beneficiaries of this decline in the LDP have been smaller populist parties on both the left and right. In July’s election, Sanseito, which has a “Japan First” and immigration restrictionist platform, increased its number of seats in the upper chamber from 1 to 15.
It is unclear when the LDP will select Ishiba’s successor. Ishiba said he decided to resign after concluding trade negotiations with the United States, calling it “the appropriate moment … to step aside and pass the baton to the next leader.”
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