WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he was unaware of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s resignation announcement less than a year after taking office.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about the news regarding Ishiba, who was unable to fend off pressure from members of his own party to take responsibility for the loss of the ruling coalition’s upper house majority in an election in July.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington on Sept. 7, 2025. (AP/Kyodo)
Trump did not say anything else about Ishiba.
Ishiba held an urgent press conference on Sunday evening in Tokyo, saying he would resign as both prime minister and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Ishiba said he had decided to avoid a “decisive split” within the party after facing persistent calls from his opponents to take responsibility for the outcome of the election, in which the LDP and its coalition partner, the Komeito party, lost control of the House of Councillors.
Ishiba’s short-lived premiership is likely to prolong the political uncertainty in Japan, although U.S. officials have said Washington’s alliance with Tokyo has never been stronger, calling it “the cornerstone of peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and across the world.”
During the press conference, Ishiba said it was the appropriate time to announce his departure from office as Japan’s tariff negotiations with the United States had concluded.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday formally implementing a trade deal that his administration struck with Japan in July.
Following multiple rounds of negotiations, the Trump administration finalized tariff relief long sought by Japan, including reducing the U.S. duty on automobiles from Japan to 15 percent from the current rate of 27.5 percent.
Ishiba, who took office in October, has held in-person talks twice with Trump, first in Washington in February and second in the Canadian mountain resort of Kananaskis in June on the sidelines of a Group of Seven summit.
Ishiba has agreed with Trump to pursue a “new golden age” of Japan-U.S. relations.
AloJapan.com