Historic agreement with Ishin paves the way for LDP leader
The agreement signed in recent days in Tokyo once again lays the foundations for that epochal change in Japanese politics, already announced with the election of Sanae Takaichi as president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), at the helm of the government.
The turning point came last Friday, during decisive talks between Takaichi and Fumitake Fujita, co-leader of the opposition Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), in which the two sides agreed to form an alliance. The basic agreement for a coalition government has led Ishin to withdraw from negotiations for an alternative with the main opposition forces, and with the upcoming special session of the Diet set for October 21, Takaichi’s election – which would make her Japan’s first female prime minister – now appears inevitable. The move, analysts say, marks a change of direction in multi-party politics in the Land of the Rising Sun, following the exit of the Buddhist-inspired centrist Komeito force from its 20-year alliance with the conservative party.
Officials from the two parties have assured that the LDP will work to implement Ishin’s proposals, including zeroing the consumption tax rate on food, currently up to 10%, and abolishing donations from companies and organizations to politicians.
Takaichi also accepted the new ally’s request to reduce the number of seats in Parliament, indicated as a “non-negotiable condition”.
The new coalition will control 231 seats in the lower house of 465 parliamentarians, just two short of the necessary majority quorum. To ensure victory on the first ballot, however, the LDP is already forging alliances with smaller parties. Among these, the 64-year-old prime minister in pectore in recent days met Sohei Kamiya, leader of Sanseito, the far-right anti-system party, hostile to immigration. With Sanseito’s three seats in the lower house and 15 in the Senate, the coalition would thus gain a majority in both chambers.
