J apanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has denied reports he plans to announce his resignation over a historic defeat of his ruling party in a weekend election, saying instead he wanted to make sure a new tariff agreement with the United States is appropriately implemented.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba denied on Wednesday he had decided to quit after a source and media reports said he planned to announce his resignation to take responsibility for a bruising upper house election defeat.