By Mariko Katsumura and Chang-Ran Kim
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s weakened Liberal Democratic Party is set to begin policy talks on Thursday with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) as 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 Takaichi to become Japan’s first woman premier, stoking bets on a revival in big spending and loose monetary policy.
Takaichi’s path to succeed Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had seemed all but certain until the LDP’s junior partner, Komeito, quit their 26-year coalition last week, setting off a flurry of negotiations with rival parties to select the next premier.
“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,” Fumitake Fujita, co-head of the JIP, told reporters.
He was speaking after members of his right-leaning party agreed at a meeting on Thursday 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 Wednesday, after a brief meeting with 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.
Takaichi will meet 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 (CDP) to draw it into a coalition with the Democratic Party For the People (DPFP), and enable a premiership bid by DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki.
(Reporting by Mariko Katsumura and Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Comments