Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba faces intense pressure within the Liberal Democratic Party to take responsibility for three election defeats by resigning. But he remains at bat following his third strike as the head of the LDP — the party’s July 20 Upper House election loss.
Ishiba’s first strike came after becoming LDP president in September last year, when he led the party into a Lower House election a month later in which it lost its majority. The second strike came when the LDP was dealt a huge blow in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election in June, during which it lost nine seats and was relegated to becoming the second-largest party in the assembly, behind Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike’s Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First).
In a meeting with party executives and angry LDP lawmakers on Monday, Ishiba resisted calls for him to resign, saying he would stay on as party president and prime minister in order to prevent a political vacuum from forming.
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