Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba resigned on Sunday, ushering in a potentially lengthy period of policy uncertainty at a shaky moment for the world\u2019s fourth-largest economy.<\/p>\n
Having just ironed out final details of a trade deal with the United States to lower President Donald Trump\u2019s punishing tariffs, Ishiba, 68, told a press conference he must take responsibility for a series of bruising election losses.<\/p>\n
Since coming to power less than a year ago, the unlikely premier has overseen his ruling coalition lose its majorities in elections for both houses of parliament amid voter anger over rising living costs.<\/p>\n
He instructed his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) \u2014 which has ruled Japan for almost all of the post-war period \u2014 to hold an emergency leadership race, adding he would continue his duties until his successor was elected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Japan having signed the trade agreement and the president having signed the executive order, we have passed a key hurdle,\u201d Ishiba said, his voice seeming to catch with emotion. \u201cI would like to pass the baton to the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ishiba has faced calls to resign since the latest of those losses in an election for the upper house in July. The LDP had been scheduled to hold a vote on whether to hold an extraordinary leadership election on Monday.<\/p>\n
Koizumi, Takaichi among possible successors
\nConcern over political uncertainty prompted a sell-off in Japan\u2019s yen currency and its government bonds last week, with the yield on the 30-year bond hitting a record high on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Investors are focusing on the chance of Ishiba being replaced by an advocate of looser fiscal and monetary policy, such as LDP veteran Sanae Takaichi, who has criticised the Bank of Japan\u2019s interest rate hikes.<\/p>\n
Ishiba narrowly defeated Takaichi in last year\u2019s LDP leadership run-off. Shinjiro Koizumi, the telegenic political scion who has gained prominence as Ishiba\u2019s farm minister tasked with trying to cap soaring prices, is another possible successor.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the political pressure mounting on Ishiba after the LDP\u2019s repeated election losses, his resignation was inevitable,\u201d said Kazutaka Maeda, economist at Meiji Yasuda Research Institute.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs for potential successors, Koizumi and Takaichi are seen as the most likely candidates. While Koizumi is not expected to bring major changes, Takaichi\u2019s stance on expansionary fiscal policy and her cautious approach to interest rate hikes could draw scrutiny from financial markets,\u201d Maeda said.<\/p>\n
Since the ruling coalition has lost its parliamentary majority, the next LDP president is not guaranteed to become prime minister, although that is likely as the party remains by far the largest in the lower house.<\/p>\n
Whoever becomes the next leader may choose to call a snap election to seek a mandate, analysts said. While Japan\u2019s opposition remains fractured, the far-right, anti-immigration Sanseito party made big gains in July\u2019s upper house election, bringing once-fringe ideas into the political mainstream.<\/p>\n
Nearly 55pc of respondents to a poll by Kyodo news agency published on Sunday said there was no need to hold an early election.<\/p>\n
Michael Brown, senior research strategist at financial markets brokerage Pepperstone, said there was likely to be further selling pressure on the yen and long-dated bonds on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat selling pressure is likely to come first from the market now needing to price a greater degree of political risk, not only in terms of the LDP leadership contest, but also the potential for a general election to be held if the new leader seeks a mandate of their own,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba resigned on Sunday, ushering in a potentially lengthy period of policy uncertainty at a shaky moment for the world\u2019s fourth-largest economy. Having just ironed out final details of a trade deal with the United States to lower President Donald Trump\u2019s punishing tariffs, Ishiba, 68, told a press conference he must […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11839,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11837\/revisions\/11839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}