Japan Opposition Heads Rap Political Stagnation after Ishiba Decision

Newsfrom Japan

Politics

Sep 8, 2025 08:30 (JST)

Tokyo, Sept. 8 (Jiji Press)–Commenting on Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s decision to quit, announced on Sunday, the leaders of opposition parties scrambled to criticize the ruling Liberal Democratic Party over the stagnation of national administration.

A focal point is whether any of the opposition parties would be ready to join the LDP-Komeito ruling coalition, which has lost its majority in both chambers of the Diet, the nation’s parliament.

“The political vacuum is set to continue,” Yoshihiko Noda, head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters in Tokyo. “The intraparty confrontation (at the LDP) has lasted too long,” he said.

“The political culture (of the LDP) has not changed,” Noda also said, pointing out that LDP members involved in the party’s slush funds scandal led a campaign calling for Ishiba’s resignation.

The decision by Ishiba, also LDP president, to step down came after the LDP-Komeito bloc lost its House of Councillors majority in the July 20 election for the upper chamber of the Diet.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]

Jiji Press