DPFP, CDP Chiefs Likely to Meet over PM Nomination

Tokyo, Oct. 13 (Jiji Press)–Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the opposition Democratic Party for the People, on Monday sounded ready to hold talks with Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan chief Yoshihiko Noda over an upcoming prime minister nomination election at the Diet, the country’s parliament. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Tamaki said he accepts Noda’s proposal for a meeting for discussions on the possibility of opposition parties putting up a unified candidate in the election at an extraordinary Diet session expected to be convened shortly. Tamaki told reporters in the western Japan city of Yamaguchi the same day that the DPFP and the CDP are expected to hold a meeting of their secretaries-general as early as Tuesday to sort out agenda items for the envisioned leaders’ meeting. Tamaki said in the X post that the DPFP also hopes to hold meetings between the secretaries-general of the party and each of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, which ended its coalition with the LDP on Friday, and opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) by the end of this week. “We are ready to talk in earnest with each party,” Tamaki said. The parliamentary votes will come after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in early September announced that he would step down, following the LDP’s major setback in the July 20 election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet. On Oct. 4, former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi was elected new LDP president to succeed Ishiba. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]