Japan’s LDP, Nippon Ishin Agree to Form Coalition Government

From Jiji

October 20 2025

TOKYO – The leaders of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) signed an agreement Monday to form a coalition government between the two parties. 

The pact, inked by LDP President Sanae Takaichi and Nippon Ishin chief Hirofumi Yoshimura at a meeting in the Diet, or the country’s parliament, on Monday night, features a plan to reduce the number of seats in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, by 10 pct during an extraordinary Diet session that begins Tuesday. 

Nippon Ishin will not hold a ministerial post and will instead support the LDP from outside the cabinet. 

At a general meeting of its lawmakers earlier Monday, Nippon Ishin decided to vote for Takaichi in the prime ministerial nomination votes at the Diet on Tuesday.

This all but ensures that the LDP chief will be selected as the successor to outgoing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, as opposition parties have failed to throw their weight behind a unified candidate. Takaichi will become the country’s first-ever female prime minister.