Nikkei Shida Agrees to Form Coalition with Gongmyeongdang

(Photo by Reuters)

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Fumio Kishida, leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and incoming Prime Minister of Japan, has agreed to continue forming a coalition government with the Komeito Party.

According to local media on the 2nd, Kishida and Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of the Komeito Party, met at the National Diet the previous day and signed a coalition agreement.

The document includes a commitment to efforts to resolve issues related to North Korea’s abduction of Japanese citizens as well as nuclear and missile problems.

This contrasts with the coalition agreement signed by Yoshihide Suga and Yamaguchi on September 15 last year, a day before the launch of the Suga Cabinet, which did not directly mention North Korea.

However, the earlier document assumed the continuation of agreements made during the Shinzo Abe administration, leaving a clue that nuclear, missile, and abduction issues were included as tasks for the coalition government.

The agreement also listed economic recovery from COVID-19 as the top priority among ten major tasks, and included a commitment to promote deliberations by the House of Representatives and House of Councillors’ constitutional review councils to deepen public discussion and work toward consensus on constitutional revision.

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