Japan’s likely next prime minister wrestles coalition backlash

Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected leader of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), holds a press conference after the LDP presidential election in Tokyo, Japan on Oct. 4, 2025. Conservative Sanae Takaichi hailed a ″new era″ after winning the leadership of Japan’s ruling party, putting her on course to become the country’s first woman prime minister. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
Japan’s likely next premier Sanae Takaichi is already facing criticism from the longtime coalition partner of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a rift that could delay or, in an extreme scenario, jeopardize her premiership.
 
Hardline conservative Takaichi, selected by the LDP as its new head in a weekend vote, held a meeting on Tuesday with the leader of the LDP’s moderate partner Komeito to discuss their concerns about some of her positions.
 
 
While Takaichi is widely expected to win approval in parliament to become Japan’s first female premier later this month, it is not guaranteed, as the ruling coalition does not have a majority.
 
If Komeito splits, Takaichi may seek to broker alliances with other parties, including the fiscally expansionist Democratic Party for the People (DPP), further fraying investors’ nerves about one of the world’s most indebted countries.
 
“Everybody does think that Takaichi probably has the upper hand,” said Kei Okamura, the managing director at asset manager Neuberger Berman in Tokyo. “It’s just a matter of how big of a hand that is.”
 
A vote in parliament had been expected to take place on Oct. 15 but is likely to be pushed back as coalition talks rumble on, LDP sources said. U.S. President Donald Trump is due to visit Japan at the end of the month.
 
Opposition seeks alternative candidate 
 
Komeito, a socially liberal party affiliated with a lay Buddhist organization, has been in an alliance with the LDP since 1999 and is often seen as a brake on its more hawkish leanings, such as its step back from pacifism.
 

Campaign flags and posters featuring Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected leader of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), are displayed outside her constituency office in Yamatokoriyama, Nara Prefecture, Japan on Oct. 6, 2025. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
The party has criticized Takaichi’s tough language on foreigners and visits to the Yasukuni Shrine — seen by neighbors as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism. It also wants the LDP to take a tougher stance on a fundraising scandal that has rocked the party.
 
After Tuesday’s talks, Komeito’s leader Tetsuo Saito told reporters he had raised these issues with Takaichi in talks that lasted around 90 minutes but reached no conclusion.
 
Meanwhile, the main opposition, the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), has called for other parties to rally behind an alternative candidate for prime minister.
 
If that happens, the DPP’s charismatic leader Yuichiro Tamaki, an advocate for major stimulus and tax cuts, would be a strong candidate, local media cited the CDP’s Secretary General Jun Azumi as saying on Wednesday.
 
Opposition parties can put forward their own candidates when parliament meets to vote on the next premier.
 
Any candidate who secures a simple majority in the first round wins approval. If not, a runoff poll follows between the two candidates with the most votes.
 
However, getting an agreement between a disparate band of opposition parties to challenge Takaichi remains a remote possibility, political analysts say.
 
Takaichi “is almost nailed on,” said Paul Nadeau, a political science associate professor at Temple University in Tokyo. 

Reuters