Ishiba vows to stay on despite election debacle

Ishiba called Sunday's election days after taking office on October 1, but voters angry at a slush fund scandal punished his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed Japan almost non-stop since 1955.

But of the 40 odd candidates implicated by the leak, most (2/3) survive this election. More than you can say for the rest of the party.

The real scandal is Ishiba saying disendorsed candidates won't be funded by the party only for them to receive the same amount of money but called something else. Sneeky...

The only thing the people of Japan can wait for is for a new PM who will at least take responsibility, because Ishiba won't.

The people have spoken. So blow me says Ishiba.

He stays just to not get the record of shorter PM...

His next step will be quitting the job in a month from now.

His next step will be quitting the job in a month from now.

No. Actually from history in political Japan, the politicians don't quit. They resign and get reallocated to another job within the political realm.

Already has to vow that he will stay on? What’s it been? A couple of weeks?. It’s a train wreck already. Unbelievable. Honestly Japan, the leadership class is broken. The world is moving too fast for them to even jump on the ship never mind steer it.

Ishiba said the biggest election factor was "people's suspicion, mistrust and anger" after the party scandal.

just shows how out of touch he and the LDP are! The party scandal isn't the "biggest election factor" but just overall suspicion, mistrust and anger at a party that has held power for nearly Japan's post WWII history.

The biggest problem for Japanese is they don't have confidence that the opposition can really be any different. When they did have power for a few years they squandered the opportunity to prove they were capable of bringing change due to a lot of infighting and power plays for leadership mainly due to the antics of Ichiro Ozawa who could be a thorn in the opposition's side once again if the CDP manages to form a coalition government and is given the chance to lead the nation.

I can understand him not wanting to leave a political vacuum, but his days are no doubt numbered.

He still doesn't understand why the LDP losts so many votes.

Maybe 5 years old children can give him some tips: Currency collapsing (the Yen lost almost 60% of its value), rapid inflation that raised the prices of everything, including food and utilities, constant fall of the real salaries for 3-4 years now, huge increase of all taxex, etc, etc.

Those oiajis are still living in a dream world, is amazing how they fell to see the day to life realities.

Oh my, he is two months into his tenure and he already has to defend his decision to not resign.

ShiwaseToday  09:28 am JST

"The people have spoken. So blow me says Ishiba."

BTW, you know the Japanese people did not want the border to be open to foreigners. Right?

What's that got to do with anything? Anyway, except for a loud and stupid but very small minority of racists and xenophobes I don't think the Japanese people are really bothered about foreigners one way or the other. You don't speak for Japanese people.

Ishiba looks mildly annoyed in the photo that his snap election decision cost the LDP 50 seats in the Diet. He knows it's only a matter of time before he is pushed aside.

Time for Sanae to put to old guy out of his misery

awomdeToday  01:16 pm JST

Time for Sanae to put to old guy out of his misery

Who are you kidding. Without her mentor Abe around she's just a busted flush. She wouldn't want to lead the LDP now anyway - like Abe in 2009 she'll disappear for a while, let others deal with the mess the LDP is now in and crawl out of the woodwork again when things are looking up.

Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed Monday to stay in office despite his gamble of snap elections backfiring

Is that supposed to make people happy?

Or just a threat and a way to tell everyone, he (and the LDP) don't care what people think? They are just gonna do what they want to do?

Politicians have been disingenuous conceited, taking the electorate for granted, in some cases outright dishonest.

Failing hour pledges and promises time and again prior to one election after another.

These scandals, slush funding could be the final straw, when combined with incompetence in government to face essential challenges, economy/food price inflation/cost of loving crisis, depopulation health care.

Wake up listen and act is long overdue.

The one saving grace from J politics that inspired me is a genuine recognition from J electorate to compel the political establishment to change, coupled with a political atmosphere that encourages politicians no matter whether left right adhere to polite respect.

An essential quality behavior if or when cross party unity could become indispensable

As long as the yen keeps falling ( repeating its last plunge this year) then I’m happy!