LDP, JIP FORM COALITION; TAKAICHI SET TO BECOME JAPAN’S FIRST FEMALE PM

TOKYO, Oct 20 (Bernama-Kyodo) -- Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the major opposition Japan Innovation Party (JIP) signed a coalition agreement on Monday, with LDP head Sanae Takaichi almost certain to become Japan’s first female prime minister the following day, Kyodo News Agency reported.

In a historic change in the nation’s political landscape, the LDP will lead a minority government by partnering with the JIP, also called Nippon Ishin, instead of the Komeito party, which ended its 26-year partnership with the LDP earlier this month.

Ahead of talks between the two parties to sign a coalition agreement later on Monday, the JIP decided at a meeting of its lawmakers to vote for Takaichi, who succeeded outgoing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as party leader on Oct. 4, in a parliamentary vote on Tuesday to elect the next prime minister.

JIP chief Hirofumi Yoshimura told reporters in Osaka on Monday morning that he had formally conveyed his party’s intention to form a coalition with the LDP during a phone call with Takaichi, saying, “Let’s move Japan forward together.”

Although the LDP-JIP alliance will fall slightly short of a majority in the more powerful House of Representatives, Takaichi, known as a staunch conservative, is expected to win the prime-ministerial election since other parties are unlikely to unite behind a joint candidate.

Fumitake Fujita, co-leader of the JIP, told a press conference that the party, which has been seeking to reduce the number of parliamentary seats, had agreed with the LDP to cut those in the lower house by 10 per cent during an upcoming extraordinary Diet session from Tuesday through Dec. 17.

The two parties have also affirmed that the LDP would strive to realise the JIP’s proposals to temporarily abolish consumption tax on food and introduce a ban on corporate and organisational political donations as conditions for joining a coalition.

The JIP, headquartered in the western prefecture of Osaka, is expected to cooperate with the LDP without taking Cabinet posts for the time being, according to senior officials from both parties.

The JIP had been in talks with the largest opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party for the People over a possible collaboration to counter the LDP.

However, after agreeing last Wednesday to enter negotiations with the LDP, which has held power almost continuously since its foundation in 1955, the JIP ended the talks with the CDPJ and the DPP.

Takaichi was elected LDP chief following Ishiba’s announcement that he would resign last month to take responsibility for his party’s major setback in the House of Councillors election in July, which saw the ruling camp with Komeito lose its majority in both parliamentary chambers.

In the 465-member lower house, whose decision on the selection of the prime minister takes precedence over that of the upper chamber, the LDP holds 196 seats and the JIP has 35, while the CDPJ holds 148, the DPP 27, and Komeito 24.

-- BERNAMA-KYODO