Tokyo, Sept. 8 -- Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced his resignation following pressure from within his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) after a historic defeat in the July parliamentary election. Ishiba, a centrist who took office in October, resisted earlier calls to step down, citing ongoing US-Japan tariff negotiations as a national priority. He said stepping down earlier would have weakened Japan's position in talks with the US, which recently agreed to lower tariffs on Japanese goods. With that milestone reached, Ishiba stated it was the right time to resign.
His resignation comes just before the LDP was set to vote on holding an early leadership election - a move that would have amounted to a no-confidence vote. To avoid ...