Japan鈥檚聽long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party began formal coalition talks on Thursday with the second-largest opposition party, with time running out to elect a new prime minister.
The country was thrown into political limbo last week after the Komeito party, the LDP鈥檚 junior partner, left the ruling coalition after 26 years.
The LDP鈥檚 new leader Sanae Takaichi met her counterpart from the Japan Innovation Party on Thursday in a bid to find new partners.
An alliance between the two parties could help pave the way towards Takaichi鈥檚 election as the nation鈥檚 first woman prime minister.
Takaichi needs a majority of 233 seats in her favour to be appointed by parliament but the LDP has only 196 MPs in the powerful lower house.
The JIP has 35, meaning a potential coalition would still leave her two seats short.
The three main opposition groups in discussions to find a unified candidate for prime minister still only hold a total of 210 members.
Takaichi had seemed on track to replace outgoing prime minister Shigeru Ishiba when she rose to lead the LDP this month.
However, Komeito鈥檚 exit from the longstanding governing coalition plunged Japan into a political crisis and prompted its fragmented opposition to mount an attempt to oust the LDP.
The top three opposition leaders met on Wednesday to seek a unified candidate but found there were still 鈥榞aps鈥� between them.
Takaichi, on the other hand, managed to find a potential partner in the JIP.
鈥業 believe we made progress on advancing the sense of mutual trust because president Takaichi and I were very close in many areas, including our views on current affairs and the political philosophy of the country,鈥� Fumitake Fujita, co-head of the JIP, said after the talks.
However, he also acknowledged that there were big policy differences in specific areas, such as a JIP proposal to ban corporate political donations.
Fujita said the parties would meet again on Friday.
Takayuki Kobayashi, the head of the LDP鈥檚 policy council, said separately that the two parties 鈥榬eaffirmed their similarities鈥� on issues such as national security and energy, and were committed to talking again.
In the most likely scenario, all the parties will each put forward their own leader in a first round of voting, with Takaichi likely to advance to a runoff as the leader of the biggest party in the Japanese legislature.
She could then come through in a two-way runoff, where whoever wins more votes will become the next premier.
The LDP wants the election held on October 21, just days before the expected visit of US President Donald Trump.
Trump will travel to Japan before he attends the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea,聽treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday.
