The softly spoken centrist has presided over two disastrous elections since being elected to lead the LDP last autumn. In October, the party and its junior coalition partner Komeito lost their majority in the lower house and met the same fate in upper house elections this July. “Now that negotiations on US tariff measures have reached a conclusion, I believe this is the appropriate moment [to resign],” Ishiba told reporters. As the environment minister, Koizumi, the son of the former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, once insisted the fight against the climate crisis could be “sexy” and “fun”. They include the former prime minister Taro Aso, who remains an influential figure in the LDP, and other MPs who were close to the former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in July 2022.