Fed up with all the talk about having to resign, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba came out fighting.

“No one can make me quit unless I say I will quit,” he thundered.

His unusually aggressive language came on the heels of a rare scene that unfolded in Tokyo’s political heartland of Nagatacho on the afternoon of July 23.

Ishiba met with three of his predecessors--Fumio Kishida, Yoshihide Suga and Taro Aso--at the headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party of which he is president.

It is highly unusual for a sitting prime minister and former prime ministers to meet up like that.

Earlier in the day, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he had agreed to a reciprocal tariff of 15 percent.

Within the LDP, the consensus was that Ishiba had lost his reason for staying in office now that the most pressing issue facing the administration has been resolved.

Prior to the meeting, two national dailies, The Yomiuri Shimbun and The Mainichi Shimbun, reported that Ishiba, 68, had decided to step down to take responsibility for the party’s drubbing in the July 20 Upper House election.

When Ishiba learned of this, he vented his frustration to those around him, saying, according to sources: “I never told anyone that I was resigning. This is false information.”

He then left the party headquarters sporting a slight smile.

ATTACKED FROM ALL SIDES

Even so, the survival of the Ishiba administration is very much up in the air. Every time Ishiba expresses his determination to remain in office, there’s an outcry even within his own party.

During an online meeting of representatives of all branches of the LDP’s Youth Division held on July 23, there were calls for the immediate resignation of the prime minister and a new lineup of the party’s executive committee.

Yasutaka Nakasone, director of the LDP’s Youth Division, stressed the party had “failed to gain the will of the people in three battles,” referring to the Lower House election last fall, the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election in June and the latest Upper House election.

“The majority of those who attended said the prime minister and the executive committee are responsible for this and should take that fact seriously,” Nakasone said.

The party’s prefectural chapters are also calling for new blood to clarify responsibility for the defeat in the recent election defeat.

Several prefectural chapters--including Tochigi, Ehime, Saitama, Yamanashi, Niigata and Kanagawa--have already acted, such as issuing a statement and submitting a written opinion to the party headquarters.

INSIDE MOVES

The key to whether the smoldering dissatisfaction in the party will develop into a “drop Ishiba” groundswell and trigger his resignation lies in the actions of party lawmakers in “non-mainstream” factions that have kept their distance from the prime minister.

One such group is Diet members who supported Sanae Takaichi, who narrowly lost to Ishiba in last year’s LDP presidential election.

On July 23, they gathered at a dormitory for the Lower House members in Tokyo’s Akasaka district to discuss future actions.

They agreed to moves to convene a gathering of the LDP Joint Plenary Meeting of Party Members of Both Houses of the Diet, which is the second most important form of assembly after a party convention with the right to vote on urgent matters.

Party rules stipulate that such a gathering “shall be convened” upon the request of one-third or more of the Diet members belonging to the party. A meeting can only be convened by the chair of the Joint Plenary Meeting of Party Members of Both Houses of the Diet.

On the evening of July 22, several members of the former Abe faction, including former LDP policy chief Koichi Hagiuda, got together. They, too, agreed to seek such a meeting of both Diet chambers, and according to a mid-level Diet member, Hagiuda has the task of collecting signatures to hold the gathering.

OTHERS IN HIS CORNER

On the other hand, there are those in the party who support Ishiba continuing in office.

Hajime Funada, a veteran Lower House member, stated in his e-mail magazine, “The Ishiba administration must take a certain amount of responsibility, but it is right that he continues to be in office.”

Funada, echoing what Ishiba said the other day, declared that no political vacuum can be tolerated, adding that the party cannot afford to tie itself up in intra-party politics.

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani also rushed to Ishiba’s defense.

“It is natural for me to support the Ishiba Cabinet,” Nakatani, who is close to Ishiba, said at a July 22 news conference.

“(The administration) has achieved some successes, and I don’t perceive that it has done nothing at all,” Nakatani added.

MORE MANEUVERING

Ishiba’s refusal to step aside is a recipe for both sides in the fight to take their battle to the next level.

Although the thorny Japan-U.S. tariff negotiations are no longer a major issue, several important political events are coming up. They include convening an extraordinary Diet session on Aug. 1 and diplomatic meetings scheduled for later that month.

With such a hectic schedule in mind, conflict within the LDP is likely to intensify.

For the time being, anti-Ishiba forces are aiming to hold the Joint Plenary Meeting of Party Members of Both Houses of the Diet before the extraordinary Diet session is convened on Aug. 1.

On the other hand, the executive committee hopes to prevent the “drop Ishiba” movement by holding a “round-table meeting” of members of both houses, in which participants do not have the right to vote.

Immediately after Ishiba’s July 23 meeting with the three former prime ministers, LDP Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama told reporters the party will hold the roundtable meeting of members on July 28.

It was originally scheduled to be held on July 31 but moved up in a pre-emptive strike by the executive committee in response to the opposition’s strategy, and an invitation was immediately sent to the members of both houses.

Ishiba in the meantime has his back against the wall as he manages the government as the minority ruling coalition.

His best hope is that the agreement reached in the Japan-U.S. tariff negotiations will bring some successes that bolster his leadership.

(Staff Writer Takahiro Okubo contributed to this story.)