Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced Sunday that he would step down after less than a year in the role, following two crushing parliamentary defeats that cost the long-governing ruling party its coalition majority in both legislative chambers.
Ishiba said he is stepping down as party leader and therefore the leader of the country. He said that he notified Liberal Democratic Party secretary general Hiroshi Moriyama of the procedure to elect a new leader in the wake of his resignation.
Ishiba’s resignation exacerbates an unusual period of political uncertainty in Japan, one of the world’s most stable democracies and a major U.S. security ally where the ruling LDP has remained in power almost uninterrupted for nearly seven decades.
Ishiba took power in October promising to tackle rising prices and to reform his party, which had been struggling after a fundraising scandal.
But shortly after taking the helm, the party lost its absolute majority in the more powerful lower house of parliament for the first time in 15 years.
The loss significantly weakened Ishiba’s standing, but then came the blow of the July upper house election loss, leaving the party without a coalition majority in either chamber of parliament after governing almost continuously since 1955.
Ishiba had resisted calls for his resignation. But momentum began to build within some parts of the party to push for his ouster. The LDP had been set to decide on Monday whether to hold a special election to potentially remove Ishiba.
The instability comes as Japan deals with an unpredictable U.S. president and increasing security threats from China. Japanese officials have also been locked in rocky trade negotiations with the United States under the Trump administration.
