Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, middle, attends an executive meeting at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on July 29. (Takeshi Iwashita)

The Liberal Democratic Party will convene a joint plenary meeting for LDP lawmakers from both Diet chambers amid continuing dissent over its bruising election defeat.

Party executives made this decision at a meeting on July 29, just over a week after the party and its coalition partner, Komeito, lost their majority in the Upper House.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will “explain carefully, sincerely and without evasion” why he intends to continue as prime minister and will seek lawmakers’ support, he told reporters in comments about the upcoming meeting.

He was speaking a day after the party held a round table for members of both houses. There have been growing calls within the party for a higher-level meeting.

The calls have come particularly from groups demanding Ishiba’s resignation. They aim to back Ishiba into a corner by bringing forward an LDP presidential election.

As for the meeting’s agenda, one party leader said it remains undecided.

“We will listen to what those requesting the meeting want to discuss under the chair of the joint plenary meeting,” the party’s secretary-general, Hiroshi Moriyama, told a news conference.

A joint plenary meeting of both houses is second only to the party’s convention in terms of addressing important matters. Participants have the right to vote.

Under the LDP’s rules, if more than one-third of the party’s Diet members request a joint plenary meeting, one must be convened within seven days.

This outcome is what an internal petition has been pushing for. Mid-level and younger LDP members said they collected sufficient signatures to trigger a joint plenary meeting.

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