Japan's prime minister Ishiba resigns amid fallout from poll failures

Japan's prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, is to resign less than a year after taking office, throwing the country's politics into turmoil and setting in motion a potentially messy contest to replace him as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP).

- Justin McCurry

The softly spoken centrist has presided over two disastrous elections. 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.

Yesterday evening Ishiba said he would resign to take responsibility for the election debacles, saying he wanted to avoid opening up a "decisive" split in the LDP.

He announced the decision as the world's fourth-biggest economy wrestles with the impact on exports of US tariffs. Last week Donald Trump announced he would lower tariffs on Japanese cars from 27.5% to 15%.