Shigeru Ishiba likes the nitty gritty of policy and making military models, but his dream job as Japanese prime minister looked at risk of coming unstuck on Sunday.<\/p>\n
According to media projections after elections, Ishiba’s coalition was projected to have lost its majority in the upper house, a result that might push him to resign.<\/p>\n
Late on Sunday, he was tight-lipped about his future.<\/p>\n
“It’s a difficult situation, and we have to take it very humbly and seriously,” Ishiba told broadcaster NHK.<\/p>\n
“We can’t do anything until we see the final results, but we want to be very aware of our responsibility,” Ishiba added.<\/p>\n
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has governed Japan almost continuously since 1955, but whether anyone wants to replace Ishiba is another matter.<\/p>\n
“I wonder who else wants the job,” Masahisa Endo, politics professor at Waseda University, told AFP before the election result.<\/p>\n
Ishiba, 68, a self-confessed defence “geek”, is the son of a regional governor and is from Japan’s small Christian minority.<\/p>\n
Seen as a safe pair of hands, he won the party leadership in September, on his fifth try, to become the LDP’s 10th separate prime minister since 2000, all of them men.<\/p>\n
Ishiba pledged to “create a new Japan” and revitalise depressed rural regions, and to address the “quiet emergency” of Japan’s shrinking population.<\/p>\n
He immediately called lower house elections for October but that backfired spectactularly, with the LDP suffering its worst result in 15 years.<\/p>\n
That robbed the LDP and its coalition party Komeito of their majority, forcing them to bargain with opposition parties to pass legislation.<\/p>\n
Ishiba’s policies on bringing down inflation and spurring growth have “flip-flopped”, Stefan Angrick at Moody’s Analytics said last week.<\/p>\n
The government “boxed itself in, promising only some belated and half-hearted financial support that will do little to improve the demand outlook,” Angrick said.<\/p>\n
The government’s popularity ratings have plummeted, with voters angry about price rises, especially for rice that is twice as expensive as a year ago.<\/p>\n
– Clumsy ways –<\/p>\n
Ishiba, the father of two daughters, also appointed only two women to his cabinet, down from five under predecessor Fumio Kishida.<\/p>\n
Ishiba’s sometimes clumsy ways — ranging from the less-than-perfectly tidy arrangement of his tuxedo to his table manners — have also been rich fodder for social media memes.<\/p>\n
He drew ridicule after being snapped apparently napping in parliament and for failing to stand up to greet other world leaders at a gathering in South America.<\/p>\n
Worse was a video that emerged of Ishiba eating an onigiri rice ball — a popular snack — whole and munching on it without closing his mouth.<\/p>\n
“He eats like a three-year-old,” wroter one user on social media platform X.<\/p>\n
– No deal –<\/p>\n
A major challenge has been dealing with US President Donald Trump, who has imposed painful tariffs on Japanese cars, steel and aluminium.<\/p>\n
Further levies of 25 percent on other Japanese imports — up from 10 percent currently — will come into force on August 1 if there is no trade agreement.<\/p>\n
Ishiba secured an early invitation to the White House in February and has sent his tariffs envoy to Washington seven times, but there has been no deal yet.<\/p>\n
Then-premier Shinzo Abe — dubbed a “Trump whisperer” — fared better during Trump’s first term, managing to shield Japan from any tariffs.<\/p>\n
Abe, who was assassinated in 2022, gifted Trump a gold-coloured golf club and was a frequent guest of the US president.<\/p>\n
According to Trump, Abe even nominated him for the Nobel prize. “There will never be another like him,” he said after Abe’s death.<\/p>\n
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