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TOKYO: Japan’s ruling LDP will sign a coalition deal later Monday, its new partner party said, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the country’s first woman premier and lifting the Nikkei to a new record.
The 11th-hour announcement by the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years.
“After giving it careful thought last night, I telephoned (LDP) president Takaichi this morning to reach a coalition agreement,” said Hirofumi Yoshimura, JIP co-head.
“At 6:00 pm, we will formally sign the agreement,” he told reporters.
Takaichi, 64, seen as a China hawk and traditionalist from the right wing of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), won the party leadership this month.
But her bid to become premier was derailed by the collapse of the LDP’s coalition with the Komeito party after 26 years.
Komeito said the LDP had failed to tighten party funding rules following a damaging slush fund scandal.
It was also unnerved by Takaichi’s previous harsh rhetoric on China and her regular visits to a Tokyo shrine that honors Japan’s war dead, including war criminals.
Likely to win
The clock was ticking for Takaichi to be appointed.
US President Donald Trump is due to visit at the end of the month on his way to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea.
Details of a trade deal between Washington and Tokyo remain unresolved, and Trump also wants Japan to stop Russian energy imports and boost defense spending.
The LDP’s new coalition with JIP is still two seats shy of the lower house majority needed for Takaichi to be appointed.
But Takaichi is still likely to win since in a second-round run-off vote she only needs more support than the other candidate.
The announcement of a new coalition pushed the Nikkei 225 index up more than three percent to a new record above 49,000 points.
Yutaka Miura, analyst at Mizuho Securities, said that investors were cheered by hopes of “proactive fiscal policies” by Takaichi, Bloomberg reported.
Takaichi has in the past backed aggressive monetary easing and expanded government spending, apeing the “Abenomics” named after her mentor, former premier Shinzo Abe.
Minority government
During the leadership campaign, Takaichi toned down her rhetoric both on the economy and on China.
Being in a minority in both houses of parliament, the new coalition will need support from other parties to push through legislation.
The JIP wants to lower the consumption tax rate on food to zero and to abolish corporate and organizational donations, Kyodo News reported Sunday.
The smaller party is also in favor of reducing the number of lawmakers. Reports say it will not hold any ministerial posts in Takaichi’s cabinet.
Besides handling Trump, Takaichi’s many challenges ahead will include addressing the slow-burning crisis of Japan’s falling population and boosting its flatlining economy.
Takaichi will also be under pressure to halt the steady slide in support for the LDP, which has governed Japan almost non-stop since 1955.
Smaller parties gaining support include the populist Sanseito, which calls immigration a “silent invasion,” even though foreign-born residents make up only around three percent of the population.

HONG KONG: A cargo aircraft skidded off a Hong Kong runway and collided with a security patrol car before both fell into the sea early Monday, killing the two people in the car, authorities said. The plane’s four crew members were unhurt.
The Boeing 747, flown by Turkiye-based ACT Airlines, was landing at Hong Kong International Airport around 3:50 a.m. on arrival from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The aircraft was being operated under lease by Emirates, a long-haul carrier based in Dubai.
The captains did not seek help before landing and had taxied about halfway down the runway before skidding off it to the left, Steven Yiu, the airport authority’s executive director in airport operations, said during a press conference.
“The patrol car absolutely did not rush onto the runway. It was the plane that went off the runway and crashed into the patrol car outside the fence,” he said.
When rescue crews arrived, the plane was broken into two parts, floating in the sea, and the four crew members were waiting to be rescued at its open door, said Yiu Men-yeung, a fire services official.
The four crew members had no apparent injuries, said Tong Sze-ho, acting senior assistant chief ambulance officer of the fire services department.
Rescuers dove into the sea and found the two security workers trapped in the car after a 40-minute search, Yiu Men-yeung said.
Local television images at midmorning showed the aircraft partially submerged just off the edge of the airport’s sea wall. The aircraft’s front half and cockpit were visible above water but the tail end appearing to have broken off. Two boats, possibly with search and rescue personnel, were near the aircraft.
The crash occurred on the north runway of Hong Kong’s airport, one of Asia’s busiest. That runway remained closed, while the two other runways at the airport continue to operate. Steven Yiu said flights at the airport would be unaffected.
Weather was suitable at the time the plane landed and the cause of the crash was being investigated, he said.
The Air Accident Investigation Authority classified the case as an accident, with the investigation to look into multiple factors, including the flight’s system, operation and maintenance.
The cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder were being sought.
Emirates said the Boeing 747 freighter flying as EK9788 was wet leased and operated by ACT Airlines. In wet leases, the company supplying the plane also provides the crew, maintenance and insurance. Emirates said there was no cargo on board.
The aircraft was 32 years old, according to Flightradar24.
Hong Kong International Airport was built on reclaimed land by merging two smaller islands north of Hong Kong’s Lantau Island in the South China Sea, at the mouth of the Pearl River. The edge of the north runway lies only a few hundred meters (yards) from the water, while the other two runways are even closer.
Emirates, the Dubai-based long haul carrier, is known for its passenger flights coming out of Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel.
However, it also operates a thriving cargo business out of Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central, the sheikhdom’s second airport where it plans a $35 billion improvement over the coming decade. The ACT Airlines’ flight had taken off from Al Maktoum, known as DWC.
Emirates, owned by a sovereign wealth fund in the city-state, noted in its most-recent annual report that it had added two wet-leased Boeing 747s “to serve surging customer demand.” Emirates has some 260 aircraft in its fleet, the majority either Boeing 777s or double-decker Airbus A380s.