Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has decided to resign to avoid a split within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Sunday.
The Japanese government has told Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to hold a press conference at 0900 GMT.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed his intention to step down following growing calls from his party to take responsibility for its big loss in the July parliamentary election, as reported by the news agency AP.
Ishiba, who took office in October, has resisted demands from mostly rightwing opponents within his own party for more than a month.
Ishiba’s LDP-led coalition lost its upper house majority in an election in July. Ishiba’s move comes one day before his Liberal Democratic Party will decide whether to hold an early leadership election â a virtual no-confidence motion against him if approved.
