Isbaiba says he wants to make sure the new customs deal agreed with the US is being implemented properly.
Japanese Prime Minister Isba has denied reports that the Liberal Democrats (LDP) will resign over his historic defeat, which was hit by the weekend elections.
Japanese newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun said in the extra edition on Wednesday that Isba had decided to announce his resignation by the end of July after receiving detailed reports from his lead trade negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa.
Asked about media coverage that he expressed his intention to resign as early as this month, the 68-year-old leader told reporters at party headquarters on Wednesday.
The report announced the trade agreement after Isba and US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday a trade agreement that would lower tariffs on Japanese cars and Tokyo imports, and then punish new taxes on other goods.
Isba previously announced his intentions on Monday to tackle looming challenges, including tariff consultations with the US without creating a political gap, and called for a prompt resignation to respond to the election outcomes, with calls from within and outside the party.
Isba is pressured to resign as the central right LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito lost a majority in the 248-member Senate, holding on Sunday the small, less powerful, two-room parliamentary congregation gripped the power and Japanese political stability.
The LDP has ruled almost continuously since 1955, three years after the US occupying the country in the wake of World War II.
The loss of bruise means a ruling coalition that lost a majority in the stronger House of Representatives in October, but now lacks a majority in both Houses of Congress, making it even more difficult for the government to achieve its policy goals and exacerbate Japan’s political instability.
Isba welcomed the trade agreement on Wednesday. On Wednesday, we placed a 15% tax on Japanese cars and other goods imported from Japan from the first 25% before the August 1 deadline.
However, some analysts accused him of being “not good at all.” Seijiro Takechita, dean of Informatics and Innovation, a graduate school of business at Shizuoka University, told Al Jazeera that people should look beyond numbers when assessing whether trade transactions are good for Japan.
In Sunday’s election, young people who felt voters ignored prices that exceeded the pace of wage growth, particularly the government’s focus on senior voters, quickly transformed into new Conservative and right-wing populist parties, like the “Japan’s first” Sansate Far Right group that won Sunday’s votes.
Isba’s potential departure will trigger a succession battle within the ruling LDP, less than a year after his inauguration, especially as he is fighting these challenges from the new political parties on the right.
It also replied to the LDP funding scandal.
“I really hope things get better in Japan, but the population is declining and I think life in Japan will be tougher and tougher,” Naomiomura, 80, from Hiroshima, told AFP News.
“It’s a shame that Japan cannot act any more,” but “it’s good that they agreed to lower tariffs,” she said.
While none of the opposition parties have expressed interest in forming a full-scale alliance with the governing coalition, they have said they are open to working with policy.
