New deal puts Takaichi on track to be Japan’s first woman PM: reports
By AFP
October 19, 2025
Sanae Takaichi looks on track to become Japan's first woman prime minister with her LDP set to sign a new coaltion deal, reports say - Copyright POOL/AFP/File Yuichi YAMAZAKI
Japan’s ruling party is set to sign a new coalition deal on Monday, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the country’s first woman prime minister, media reports said.
Takaichi became leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) earlier this month, but her bid to become premier was derailed by the collapse of her ruling coalition.
Since then, the LDP has been working to cobble together a different alliance, putting her chances back on track.
Takaichi and her counterpart Hirofumi Yoshimura from the reformist, right-leaning opposition Japan Innovation Party (JIP) are set to sign a coalition agreement on Monday, Kyodo News reported Sunday, citing unnamed senior officials from both parties.
The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper also said Takaichi and Yoshimura were “likely to sign a coalition agreement after talks on Monday”, citing unnamed party sources.
The reports come after the LDP’s junior partner, the Komeito party, left the ruling coalition after 26 years, plunging Japan into a political crisis.
The fragmented opposition appears to have failed to agree a common joint candidate for premier.
An alliance between LDP and JIP could lead to Takaichi’s election as premier on Tuesday, but they are still two seats shy of a majority in the powerful lower house of the two-chamber parliament.
Should the vote go to a second-round runoff, however, Takaichi would only need support from more MPs than the other candidate.
All the political wrangling comes just days before the expected arrival of US President Donald Trump at the end of this month.
Trump will travel to Japan before the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea.
Senior officials from the two parties agreed Friday in Tokyo that the LDP would strive to realise the JIP’s proposals to lower the consumption tax rate on food to zero from the current level of up to 10 percent, and to abolish corporate and organisational donations, Kyodo News reported.
The LDP also accepted Yoshimura’s demand to cut the number of parliament seats, which he has called a “non-negotiable condition” for entering the coalition, it said.
If Takaichi becomes the new prime minister, the JIP will not hold a ministerial post but one of her special advisors will be chosen from the party, TV Asahi said.
However, the Yomiuri reported Yoshimura would make a final decision on whether to join the Takaichi cabinet taking a ministerial post or just to cooperate from outside the cabinet.
Officials of the LDP and the JIP could not be immediately reached to comment on the reports to AFP.
Taiwan’s KMT elects new leader
Cheng Li-wun, the only female contender among six candidates, defeated former Taipei mayor Hau Lung‑bin by a wide margin, winning over 50% of the ballot, in the leadership race for Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang on October 18 according to a statement from KMT headquarters on Saturday evening.
Cheng is now due to assume office on November 1.
During her campaign Cheng adopted a reform-minded stance and told supporters that she aimed to turn the KMT from a “flock of sheep” into “lions” The Straits Times reports.
For many, however, the campaign was overshadowed by serious claims of interference in the party’s internal election. One prominent KMT figure and media personality, Jaw Shaw‑kong, alleged that online disinformation operations had boosted pro-Cheng sentiment, citing domestic reports of more than 1,000 TikTok videos and 23 YouTube accounts posting related content, with more than half said to be based outside Taiwan.
When asked about the role of Beijing in the matter though, the head of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau, Tsai Ming‑yen did not confirm the origins of the monitoring of the campaigns on these platforms. Key for many in Taiwan was Tsai also opting not to publicly attribute responsibility to the Chinese government.
As a result, Cheng rejected the interference claims by Jaw and others as “very cheap labels”, admonishing politicians to restore rationality in domestic politics – an issue many on the island of around 24mn routinely point to as absent in recent years.
As the new head of the KMT, Cheng inherits the leadership of a party that has lost three consecutive presidential elections to the left-wing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and is seeking to revitalise its base ahead of the 2028 presidential contest, AP adds.
In Taiwan however, the KMT retains significant legislative influence and, under Cheng, is expected to emphasise pragmatism and cross-strait stability – an aspect of policy already being held up by DPP supporting media as evidence of her leanings towards China. But despite Cheng’s claims of being a reformer, her own relatively sudden rise raises questions about how the party will balance closer ties with China against a public in Taiwan increasingly wary of Beijing’s influence.
In the short-term, as has been reported by The Straits Times, Cheng’s stance on increasing defence spending proposed under President Lai Ching‑te is likely to set the tone for upcoming policy debates – the 55-year-old opposing DPP moves to curry favour with US President Donald Trump by raising Taiwan's current defence budget to 5% of the nation’s GDP.
More broadly, her leadership could signal a shift in KMT strategy - from long-term opposition to a party preparing for a return to power.
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