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.

Asked about media reports that he had expressed his intention to step down as early as this month, the 68-year-old leader Ishiba told reporters at party headquarters on Wednesday: “I have never made such a statement…The facts reported in the media are completely unfounded.”