Japan's Decades-Old Ruling Coalition Collapses

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00:00This is a political earthquake in Japan. We've seen the minor party in this coalition decide

00:07that they want to pull out. And this is the coalition that's governed Japan for most of

00:11the last 26 years. So the breakup is, it seems like it's real. The leader of the larger party,

00:19Sanae Taikichi, says she wants to continue talks, wants to find a way to keep the coalition together.

00:24But this has big implications for her. We're expecting her to be the next prime minister.

00:29But it's really going to make it hard for her to get her policy agenda through. The LDP will be

00:36weakened. She'll be a weakened prime minister. So there are many implications here. This is a big

00:40deal. And just for context, I mean, this coalition has been in power for 25 years. This could be a

00:46sea change. Who's left to be a junior partner? Or are we looking at some other kind of rainbow

00:51coalition that doesn't even include the LDP, given that they're losing more and more seats in both

00:55chambers? I think at this point, we shouldn't rule anything out. I mean, what we're seeing now is

01:00the LDP is looking for potential other partners. I mean, they've been doing this really for the last

01:05few days, when things have gone south with Komeito. So they'll look for any way they can to hold things

01:12together. But what that means is policy compromises. The Takaichi is going to have to take on board some

01:18of the policies from other parties. We've seen, you know, the reaction in markets is very interesting.

01:24You know, people have expected her to be very aggressive on sort of pump priming for the economy.

01:29But maybe she has to consider other approaches now. So it's a time for compromise. It's a time

01:34for horse trading. It's a time that will really test her political skills. And she's only been in

01:40this job for less than a week. She was the presumptive prime minister. Is that for sure to happen now?

01:45And what is this Komeito party? The leader being Tetsuo Saito. What do we know about their types

01:50of policies? Komeito is a party which is more focused on social issues. It wants to see more

02:00kind of social welfare support. It's been a really a kind of break on some of the more aggressive

02:06economic policies and security policies that the LDP has had over the years. So if that coercion breaks

02:12up, then we may see the LDP perhaps move more to the right. There are a few parties that it could

02:17do deals with to adopt some of the policies that Takechi wants to do in terms of stimulus for the

02:25economy, tax cuts, that kind of thing. So there's potential for lots of sort of policy implications

02:31here. But without Komeito, the problem is that she might struggle to get through that vote

02:37to become prime minister. So if that's the case, then she may not even have a chance to get her policies

02:42through.