According to local media reports, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is expected to resign at the end of August. The news came shortly after US President Donald Trump announced that the United States had reached a “massive deal” with Japan. Ishiba, who will meet with former prime ministers, Taro Aso, Yoshihide Suga and Fumio Kishida later today, denied the rumors. 

“Nothing that has been reported is true,” he told reporters on Wednesday afternoon. 

Following Sunday’s election, which saw the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito lose its majority in the Upper House, Ishiba was asked if he planned to continue as prime minister, to which he replied, “That’s right.” Members of his own party, though saw things differently. For the first time in its 70-year history, the LDP leads a coalition that doesn’t control either house and that is deemed as unacceptable.  

LDP Members Call for Ishiba to Resign 

Aso, who served as PM from 2008 to 2009, is one of his most vocal critics. He told TV Asahi that he “couldn’t accept” Ishiba staying on as prime minister. It would appear that many within the party agree with him. Upper House lawmaker Shigeharu Aoyama also called for him to resign, adding that it’s impossible to leave the job of negotiating tariffs with the US to a lame-duck government.  

A tariff deal, though, has already been reached. Posting on Truth Social on Tuesday night, Trump wrote, “We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made. Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 billion dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits. This deal will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs — There has never been anything like it.” Ishiba welcomed the announcement, stating it was “the lowest figure to date among countries with trade surpluses with the US.”

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Updated On July 23, 2025