Ishiba says to assess his responsibility based on election review
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Saturday that he will assess his responsibility for the ruling camp's crushing defeat in a recent parliamentary election based on an upcoming election review report, as well as on the opinions of lawmakers of his Liberal Democratic Party.
The LDP plans to release a summary report on the results of last month's House of Councillors election at the end of this month.
"I will consider (my responsibility) appropriately based on various opinions," Ishiba told a news conference in the city of Nagasaki, southwestern Japan.
On Friday, the LDP held a general meeting of the party's lawmakers from both chambers of the Diet, Japan's parliament. At the meeting, several LDP members called for Ishiba to step down.
The participants agreed that the party's presidential election administration commission will ask LDP Diet members, as well as representatives from all 47 prefectural party branches, whether to hold an emergency party leadership election.
With this agreement in mind, Ishiba said, "Various things are going on at the same time, so I want to recognise them and deepen my thinking properly."
He reiterated that he has no plans to reshuffle the LDP leadership.
"We will do our best to address policy issues that we have to tackle every day," the prime minister said, referring to the Japan-US tariff deal.
The agreement between the two countries to reduce US tariffs on Japanese vehicles and auto parts has yet to be implemented. "We will continue to work hard to ensure that this is implemented as quickly and reliably as possible," Ishiba said.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
