TOKYO: The Japan Innovation Party and the Liberal Democratic Party made “big progress” in talks toward a possible coalition, party executives said on Friday, bringing LDP chief Sanae Takaichi closer to clinching the premiership next week.

“Both parties agree that big progress has been made today,” Fumitake Fujita, co-head of Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin, told reporters.

The right-leaning Ishin, which had also been courted by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) for a rival three-way coalition with the Democratic Party for the People (DPFP), had pulled out of those talks, Fujita also said.

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.

While Fujita said some issues remain to be sorted out with the LDP before a final decision is made on Monday, a partnership with other opposition parties was no longer on the cards.

“We told the CDP and DPFP that Ishin would find it difficult to vote for their leaders for prime minister,” Fujita said.

In response, the CDP decided to put forward its own leader, Yoshihiko Noda, as a candidate for prime minister, Kyodo reported.

The LDP and Ishin together hold 233 seats in the lower house – just two short of the majority needed for Takaichi to win. The parliamentary vote is set for October 21.

A number of diplomatic events await the new prime minister towards the end of the month, from international summits in Malaysia and South Korea to U.S. President Donald Trump’s expected visit to Japan.

Reuters