Shigeru Ishiba (born 4 February 1957) is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2024 until his resignation in 2025. He has represented Tottori 1st in the House of Representatives since 1996. Before his premiership, he was the Minister of Defense from 2007 to 2008 and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries from 2008 to 2009, as well as Secretary-General of the LDP from 2012 to 2014.
The son of politician Jirō Ishiba, he graduated from Keio University in 1979. Prior to entering politics after his father's death, Ishiba worked at a bank before being elected to the House of Representatives in the 1986 general election as a member of the LDP at the age of 29. As a Diet member, Ishiba specialized in agricultural policy and defense policy. He served as parliamentary vice minister of agriculture under the premiership of Kiichi Miyazawa, but left the LDP in 1993 to join the Japan Renewal Party. After transitioning through several parties and returning to the LDP in 1997, Ishiba held various prominent positions, including Director-general of the Defense Agency under the premiership of Junichiro Koizumi, minister of defense under the premiership of Yasuo Fukuda and minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries under the premiership of Tarō Asō. Ishiba became a key figure within the LDP, running for party leadership multiple times. First in 2008 where he placed fifth, and notably against Shinzo Abe in the 2012 and 2018 elections. Despite his criticisms of LDP factionalism, he established his own faction, Suigetsukai, in 2015, aiming for leadership. After Abe's second resignation, Ishiba ran again for party president in 2020, but placed third behind Yoshihide Suga. Ishiba declined to run and endorsed Taro Kono in the 2021 election, which was won by Fumio Kishida. After Kishida announced that he would step down, Ishiba contested for the fifth time in the 2024 election where he defeated Sanae Takaichi in a second round run-off, becoming the new party leader and prime minister–designate, and was formally elected Prime Minister by the National Diet on 1 October 2024.
As prime minister, Ishiba almost immediately announced a snap general election, where the ruling LDP coalition lost its majority in the House of Representatives for the first time since 2009, suffering its second-worst result in party history. In the National Diet, Ishiba relied on opposition parties to pass legislation due to his coalition's minority government status. On foreign policy, Ishiba moved Japan economically closer to India and South Korea amidst protectionist policies being employed by the United States, while continuing to support Ukraine during the Russian invasion that began in 2022. After the LDP-Komeito coalition lost its majority in the House of Councillors after a poor result in the 2025 election, Ishiba began to face calls within the LDP for him to resign. Ishiba initially announced he planned to remain as prime minister, citing the need to see through tariff negotiations with the United States. He eventually announced his intention to resign as party president and as prime minister in September 2025, and was succeeded as prime minister by Takaichi the next month.
Ishiba has developed a reputation throughout his career as a political maverick due to his willingness to criticize his own party, as well as his relatively liberal stances on social issues; he supported a motion of no-confidence against the Miyazawa Cabinet in 1993 and criticized Abe throughout his second premiership, despite serving in the governments of both prime ministers. During his tenure as prime minister however, Ishiba was criticized for being too hesitant to embrace reform and for reversing several of his earlier positions.
Early life Ishiba was born on 4 February 1957, in Chiyoda, Tokyo, while his registered domicile was his father's hometown in the Yazu District of Tottori Prefecture. His father, Jirō Ishiba, was a government official then serving as Vice Minister of Construction. His mother was a teacher and a granddaughter of the Christian minister Michitomo Kanamori. Jirō Ishiba was elected Governor of Tottori Prefecture in 1958, so the family moved to Tottori; Ishiba has no memory of living in Tokyo. Jirō Ishiba would serve as governor until 1974, and was later elected to the House of Councillors and served as Minister for Home Affairs in the Zenkō Suzuki Cabinet.
Shigeru Ishiba grew up and attended school in Tottori Prefecture. After graduating from Tottori University Junior High School, he moved away to attend Keio Senior High School, going on to study law at Keio University in Tokyo. After graduating in 1979, he began working at the Mitsui Bank. During his years at Mitsui Bank, Ishiba gained experience in finance before leaving the private sector following the death of his father. Encouraged by former prime minister Kakuei Tanaka, he entered politics and successfully contested the 1986 general election at the age of 29. His father died in 1981. Former prime minister Kakuei Tanaka, who was a friend of his father, served as chairman of the funeral committee. Tanaka encouraged Ishiba to become a politician to carry on his father's legacy.
Political career (1986–2024) Backbencher Ishiba left the bank in 1983 and began working in the secretariat of the Thursday Club, Kakuei Tanaka's faction of the Liberal Democratic Party. In the 1986 Japanese general election Ishiba ran as an LDP candidate in the Tottori at-large district and was elected to the House of Representatives. At the age of 29, he was the youngest member of the House at the time.
As a junior Diet member, Ishiba specialised in agricultural policy, but the Gulf War in 1990 and a 1992 visit to North Korea spurred his interest in defense policy. He served as parliamentary vice minister of agriculture under the Miyazawa Cabinet, before defecting from the LDP in 1993, for the Japan Renewal Party. When the Japan Renewal Party merged with several other parties, Ishiba became part of the New Frontier Party, but he was disillusioned by the constant struggles between Ozawa and non-Ozawa factions in the party and left in 1996. He rejoined the LDP the following year.
Cabinet minister and LDP leadership campaigns Ishiba was reappointed parliamentary vice minister of Agriculture under the Mori Cabinet in July 2000 but was switched to the position of deputy director general of the Defense Agency in December. He was replaced when the Koizumi Cabinet was appointed. When Koizumi reshuffled the cabinet in September 2002, Ishiba became Director General of the Defense Agency, entering the cabinet for the first time. Ishiba served as director general during the 2003 invasion of Iraq by an American-led coalition. He defended the legality of the invasion and paved the way for the first overseas deployment of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces without a UN mandate, sending troops to Iraq in January 2004 to assist with reconstruction efforts. He left cabinet in September 2004.
Ishiba was appointed as the Minister of Defense in the cabinet of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on 26 September 2007, serving in that post until 1 August 2008. Ishiba was the second person in the cabinet of Fukuda to express belief in the existence of UFOs after Nobutaka Machimura. Asked on a response to a hypothetical appearance of a UFO, Ishiba said that it would be "difficult" to determine if such an incident amounted to an airspace violation, saying that a UFO was technically not an aircraft from a foreign country. In the same interview, he jokingly said that he would mobilize the Japan Self-Defense Forces in response to an appearance by Godzilla.
Following Fukuda's resignation, Ishiba stood as a candidate for the LDP presidency. In the leadership election, held on 22 September 2008, Tarō Asō won with 351 of the 527 votes; Ishiba placed fifth and last with 25 votes. In Asō Cabinet, appointed on 24 September 2008, Ishiba was named as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. He called for Asō to resign after the LDP's defeat in the 2009 Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election. Ishiba retained his seat in the 2009 House of Representatives election, otherwise a crushing defeat for the LDP. After Sadakazu Tanigaki was elected to replace Asō as party president, Ishiba was appointed chairman of the Policy Research Council, one of the top positions in the party. Ishiba was thus one of the most prominent LDP figures when the party was in opposition. He was removed when Tanigaki reshuffled the party leadership in September 2011.
In September 2012, while the LDP was still in opposition, Ishiba again stood for the presidency of the LDP and was narrowly defeated by former prime minister Shinzo Abe. He accepted the position of secretary-general on 27 September 2012. Ishiba was re-appointed to the position under Abe's second premiership after the December 2012 general election in which the LDP returned to government. Ishiba attracted considerable criticism for his statement in November 2013 that likened peaceful public protests against the new secrecy bill being introduced by his government to "acts of terrorism". He later withdrew the comment.
In the September 2014 cabinet reshuffle, Abe moved Ishiba from his position as LDP Secretary-General and appointed him to a newly created office of Minister for Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy. He was reported to have declined the offer of a cabinet post responsible for the government's upcoming security legislation. In spite of having been a vocal critic of factionalism in the LDP, Ishiba launched his own faction, the Suigetsukai, on 28 September 2015, with the aim of succeeding sitting prime minister, Shinzo Abe. With 19 members, excluding Ishiba, it was one member short of the 20 votes required for nomination for LDP leadership.
Ishiba left the cabinet in the April 2016 reshuffle, having declined the ministry of Agriculture. Ishiba challenged Abe in the 2018 LDP presidential election but was defeated again. In 2020, following Shinzo Abe's second resignation, Ishiba ran for the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party, losing to Yoshihide Suga, placing third overall. Ishiba declined to run in the 2021 Liberal Democratic Party leadership election, instead endorsing Taro Kono.
Premiership (2024–2025)
2024 LDP leadership election
Throughout his years outside the cabinet, Ishiba remained one of the Liberal Democratic Party's most popular politicians among grassroots party members despite repeatedly failing to secure enough support from lawmakers in leadership elections. Political observers frequently described him as a policy-oriented politician with expertise in defence and regional revitalisation. Then-LDP leader and prime minister Fumio Kishida announced on 14 August 2024 that he would not seek re-election as LDP leader in the leadership election in September, effectively resigning as prime minister, following record-low approval ratings from an ongoing slush fund scandal and previous controversies with the LDP's affiliation with the Unification Church.
In August 2024, Ishiba published a book, Conservative Politician — My Policies, My Destiny, which would serve as something of a guide and manifesto for his 2024 leadership campaign. In the book, he described himself as a "conservative liberal" who was in favor of discussions regarding same-sex marriage, and advocated for deleting the second paragraph of Article 9 in the Constitution, which renounces Japan's right to wage offensive war. He also proposed changing the Self-Defense Forces to simply the "National Defense Force".