Ishiba says he will assess his responsibility based on election review

Nagasaki –

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Saturday that he will assess his responsibility for the ruling camp’s poor result in the Upper House election based on an upcoming review, 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 election at the end of this month.

“I will consider (my responsibility) appropriately based on various opinions,” Ishiba told a news conference in Nagasaki.

On Friday, the LDP held a general meeting of the party’s lawmakers from both chambers of parliament. During the meeting, a number of LDP members called for Ishiba to step down.

The participants agreed that the party’s presidential election administration commission will ask LDP lawmakers as well as representatives from all 47 prefectural party branches whether to hold an emergency party leadership election.

“Various things are going on at the same time, so I want to properly recognize them and deepen my thinking,” Ishiba said.

He reiterated that he has no plans to reshuffle his leadership team.

“We will do our best to address policy issues that we have to tackle every day,” the prime minister said, referring to the Japan-U.S. tariff deal.

The agreement between the two countries to reduce U.S. 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.