TOKYO (Reuters) -The Japanese ruling party’s secretary general Hiroshi Moriyama, a close aide to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, said on Tuesday he intends to resign from his post, potentially affecting the fate of Ishiba who has resisted calls to quit over an election loss.
Speaking to reporters after the Liberal Democratic Party’s plenary meeting, Moriyama said he would resign from his post to take responsibility for the party’s defeat in the July 20 upper house election, where the ruling coalition lost its majority.
Moriyama, known as fiscal hawk, also said he would leave the final decision to Ishiba.
Earlier on Tuesday, the LDP convened a joint plenary meeting of both houses to assess the election defeat in the upper house election. Following the meeting, the party could begin procedures to decide whether to bring forward a leadership election.
Ishiba on Tuesday reiterated he has no immediate intention to resign, saying that he will make a decision on how to take responsibility for the election loss at “appropriate timing”.
“Working on challenges that the party needs to address immediately is one way of taking responsibility,” Ishiba told reporters, citing the need for economic measures for those suffering from inflation or impacts from U.S. tariffs.
He also said he would “make an appropriate decision” on Moriyama’s intention to resign.
The Sankei newspaper reported on Tuesday that Ishiba plans to ask ministers as early as this week to compile an economic stimulus package to address inflation, in a potential sign of his commitment to stay in office and counter calls within the party to advance the leadership race.
(Reporting by Yoshifumi Takemoto and Makiko YamazakiEditing by Bernadette Baum and Toby Chopra)
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