【速報そくほう中;ちゅう】】石破;いしば首相しゅしょう 辞任じにんする意向いこう固かためる まもなく会見かいけん開始かいし

The government announced that Prime Minister Ishiba will hold a press conference at the Prime Ministers Office from 6 p.m. on the night of the 7th.

Prime Minister Ishiba is expected to announce his intention to resign ahead of the decision on the 8th regarding whether an extraordinary presidential election will be held within the Liberal Democratic Party.

We will bring you a live update of the remarks made at the press conference.

This is the first time since the party was founded in 1955 that a government led by the Liberal Democratic Party has lost its majority in both the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors.

The morning after the election, Prime Minister Ishiba expressed his intention to remain in office, stating, The most important thing is to avoid causing stagnation in national politics.

Within the party, there were a series of voices holding people accountable for the consecutive defeats in national elections, following last years House of Representatives election.

Prime Minister Ishiba held talks with three former prime ministers: Supreme Advisor Aso, Vice President Suga, and former Prime Minister Kishida.

Mr. Aso urges that responsibility be clarified, stating, The public has indicated that we cannot win an election with Prime Minister Ishiba.

However, Prime Minister Ishiba reiterated his intention to remain in office, stating that no discussion about resignation has taken place.

In response, mid-level and younger lawmakers began collecting signatures to request the convening of a General Assembly of Both Houses, which is the partys decision-making body.

The Joint Meeting of Both Houses lasted for four and a half hours, far exceeding the scheduled time, with repeated calls for Prime Minister Ishibas resignation.

The executive committee, yielding to voices within the party, decides to hold a joint plenary meeting of both houses.

In this context, Prime Minister Ishiba is actively engaging in summit diplomacy.

He attended the TICAD Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama and held a series of meetings with leaders such as South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and Indian Prime Minister Modi.

There has never been a case in the past where implementation was requested by a majority of the total number of party-affiliated Diet members and prefectural chapter representatives.

Summary and Conclusion Procedures began on September 2. In the Joint Plenary Meeting of Both Houses held again, the summary of the election was compiled, and procedures to decide whether to hold an extraordinary presidential election were initiated.

According to various opinion polls, the proportion of people who believe that Prime Minister Ishiba does not need to resign has increased.

However, within the party, there is fierce conflict over whether it is necessary to hold a leadership election.

There was confusion within the party, with some even discussing the dissolution of the House of Representatives, and there were opinions that Prime Minister Ishiba should step down himself to resolve the situation.

He finally seized the top position on his fifth attempt at the party leadership election.

In October, the 102nd Prime Minister took office and the Ishiba Cabinet was inaugurated.

In his policy speech, he emphasized the establishment of wage increases that surpass rising prices, regional revitalization, and the creation of a Disaster Management Agency.

The period from inauguration to dissolution was the shortest in the postwar era.

In the House of Representatives election, they did not endorse any candidates who failed to record items in their income and expenditure reports, in order to demonstrate a strict stance on issues involving politics and money.

However, it was revealed that 20 million yen had also been provided to a local party branch headed by a candidate not officially endorsed by the Liberal Democratic Party, further intensifying the headwinds facing the ruling party.

The Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito both suffered a major defeat, falling below a majority with 215 seats.

The failure of both parties to secure a majority was the first time since 2009, sixteen years ago, when the Democratic Party came to power.

The administration will be run by adopting some of the opposition parties proposals as a minority ruling party, and the second Ishiba Cabinet will be launched in November.

In the deliberations on the supplementary budget at the extraordinary Diet session in autumn, the government plan was amended in response to the requests of the Constitutional Democratic Party.

We incorporated the proposals of the Japan Innovation Party and the Democratic Party for the People and passed the budget.

It was the first time in 28 years that the budget bill was passed after being amended during deliberations in the Diet.

We will continue the approach of consulting with opposition parties on each policy during this years regular Diet session.

In the deliberation of the initial budget, after being amended in the House of Representatives, it was amended again in the House of Councillors before finally being enacted.

This is the first time that a budget amended by both the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors has been enacted.

On the other hand, with the House of Councillors election approaching, the confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties in the Diet intensified toward the final stage.

The difficulties faced by the minority ruling party were once again highlighted when the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Affairs from the Liberal Democratic Party was dismissed over the handling of a bill to abolish the provisional gasoline tax rate.

We shared the understanding that the acquisition plan of US Steel by Nippon Steel is “an investment, not an acquisition.”

After that, negotiations between the companies progressed, and the acquisition plan was realized.

On the other hand, after the Trump administration imposed additional tariffs on automobiles and other goods under its America First policy, negotiations between Japan and the United States continued from April onward.

Minister Akazawa, in charge of economic revitalization, frequently visited the United States, and Prime Minister Ishiba also held repeated negotiations, including a meeting with President Trump in June this year during the G7 summit held in Canada.

Ahead of the House of Councillors election, a policy was announced to provide 20,000 yen per person, with an additional 20,000 yen for children and adults in households exempt from resident tax.

The government did not implement the consumption tax cut requested by the opposition parties, explaining that the consumption tax is an important source of revenue for maintaining future social security, and sought understanding for this decision.

The opposition criticized the 20,000 yen handout as “an election-motivated giveaway,” and in the election, how to deal with rising prices became a major point of contention.

The House of Councillors election was a defeat. Prime Minister Ishiba set the must-achieve goal of securing a majority of seats for the ruling parties, including the non-contested seats.

The election was lost, and both the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito fell below a majority in both the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors.

Even after the election, on the day after the election, Prime Minister Ishiba expressed his intention to continue, stating that national politics must not be allowed to stagnate.

In negotiations between Japan and the United States following the U.S. tariff measures, an agreement was reached to lower tariffs on automobiles and other goods.

In NHKs opinion poll in August, when asked about their views on Prime Minister Ishibas intention to remain in office, more people supported it than opposed it, and surveys by other news organizations also showed that support for his continuation exceeded opposition.

In this context, Prime Minister Ishiba is actively engaging in summit diplomacy.

He attended the TICAD Tokyo International Conference on African Development held in Yokohama, and also held summit meetings with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and Indian Prime Minister Modi, who visited Japan.

The calls for resignation did not cease; within the Liberal Democratic Party, voices insisting that responsibility for the election defeat should be taken through resignation continued unabated.

And on the 8th, it was decided that members of parliament and representatives of prefectural chapters who are requesting an extraordinary party leadership election would express their intention by submitting written documents and other means.

If a majority of the total is reached, the implementation will be decided. According to NHKs coverage, more than 130 out of the 295 LDP Diet members have so far said that it should be implemented, and decisions to call for implementation have also been made one after another by the LDP branches in all 47 prefectures nationwide.

Taking these circumstances into consideration, Prime Minister Ishiba has decided to resign, stating that he wants to avoid a situation where the party becomes divided.

According to the partys Presidential Election Rules, the contest is decided by the combined votes of the partys Diet members and the party member vote conducted among party members nationwide.

It is what is commonly referred to as the full-spec type, and last years party leadership election was conducted using this method, with votes cast by more than 1.05 million party members and supporters nationwide.

If this method is adopted, it is expected that both the Diet member votes and the party member votes will be contested with a total of 590 votes, 295 each.

In addition, the election period will be at least 12 days.

On the other hand, in cases where there is an urgent need, such as the resignation of the party president during their term, a joint plenary meeting of both houses, which serves as a substitute for the party convention, will be held, and each Diet member and three representatives from each of the 47 prefectural party chapters will cast their votes.

Since no party member vote is held, it is also called the simplified type.

This time, if this method is adopted, it is expected that the contest will be held with a total of 436 votes: 295 Diet member votes and 141 local votes, with 3 votes allocated to each of the 47 prefectural chapters.

The most recent simplified election was the 2020 party leadership election held after then-Prime Minister Abe resigned, in which Prime Minister Suga was chosen. At that time, there were opinions such as the voices of party members should be more widely reflected, so in 44 prefectural chapters, preliminary elections were held by party members and others.