Japan LDP’s Takaichi explores coalition with right-leaning party in premiership bid
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LDP’s Sanae Takaichi’s path to premiership had seemed all but certain until Komeito quit a 26-year coalition last week.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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TOKYO - Japan’s weakened Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is set to begin policy talks on Oct 16 with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) as Ms Sanae Takaichi, the ruling party’s new leader, woos an ally to help clinch a prime ministerial vote expected next week.
The Nikkei share average rose as prospects appeared to brighten for Ms Takaichi to become Japan’s first woman premier, stoking bets on a revival in big spending and loose monetary policy.
Ms Takaichi’s path to succeed Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had seemed all but certain until the LDP’s junior partner, Komeito, quit their 26-year coalition last week
“There were strong views (among party members) that we should win as many of the policies that we have been committed to as possible, then form a coalition and change Japanese politics,” JIP co-head Fumitake Fujita told reporters.
He was speaking after members of his right-leaning party agreed at a meeting on Oct 16 to leave the final decision to party executives.
Taken together, the two parties would be just two seats short of a majority in the Lower House, which has the deciding vote to choose the prime minister. The government has yet to agree a date for the parliamentary vote.
On Oct 15, after a brief meeting with Ms Takaichi, JIP chief Hirofumi Yoshimura had said the party would back her as prime minister if both could agree on key policy proposals it would submit to the LDP.
Ms Takaichi will meet Mr Fujita, along with the parties’ policy chiefs, to discuss issues such as designating a second capital and social security reform.
The parties are aligned on security policy, such as higher defence spending and plans to revise Japan’s war-renouncing Constitution.
But the JIP also figures in separate efforts by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party to draw it into a coalition with the Democratic Party For the People (DPFP), and enable a premiership bid by DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki. REUTERS
