Photo/Illutration Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Oct. 30. (Nozomi Matsui)

The ruling coalition parties will soon start policy consultations with the Democratic Party for the People, including possible inclusion of the opposition party’s ideas in a planned package of economic measures.

Hiroshi Moriyama, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and his DPP counterpart, Kazuya Shinba, agreed on Oct. 31 to arrange talks on the stimulus package as well as the budget and tax revisions for next fiscal year.

Moriyama told reporters after the meeting that officials from junior coalition partner Komeito will join the consultations.

Executives from Komeito and the DPP, the third-largest opposition party, are scheduled to hold a meeting on Nov. 1.

Moriyama and Shinba also agreed that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is the LDP president, and DPP leader Yuichiro Tamaki will meet on Nov. 9, at the earliest.

“We want to constructively engage in (developing) new policymaking rules,” Tamaki earlier said on Oct. 30.

Tetsushi Sakamoto, chairman of the LDP’s Diet Affairs Committee, and his DPP counterpart, Motohisa Furukawa, sat in on the meeting of the secretaries-general.

In the Oct. 27 Lower House election, the LDP-Komeito coalition gained only 215 seats, 18 short of a 233-seat majority.

The DPP increased its strength fourfold to 28 seats.

The coalition parties plan to compile a comprehensive package of economic measures next month and enact a supplementary budget to finance those measures.

They will consider incorporating some of the DPP’s measures proposed during the campaign to increase people’s after-tax income to secure the party’s support for the supplementary budget, sources said.

Tamaki said Oct. 30 that the party will “strongly call for” raising the minimum amount of annual income subject to income tax from the current 1.03 million yen ($6,700).

The DPP has also proposed invoking a “trigger” clause to temporarily lower the gasoline tax.

The Ishiba administration hopes to form a “partial alliance” with the DPP to obtain its support on a broad range of issues, including bills, but the DPP plans to discuss policies individually.

A special Diet session will be convened as early as Nov. 11, and the two chambers will vote on who is to be named prime minister.

At a meeting of its executives on Oct. 30, the DPP reaffirmed its policy to cast ballots for Tamaki not only in the first round but also in an expected run-off, which is held between the top two finishers in the first round if no party leader receives a majority of votes.

The DPP’s decision increases the prospects of Ishiba being named prime minister again unless many LDP lawmakers, frustrated with the party’s election loss, abstain or vote for someone else.

Any vote cast for Tamaki in the runoff will be invalid if he is eliminated in the first round.

Yoshihiko Noda, president of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, has called on other opposition parties to vote for him as prime minister in the special Diet session.

He discussed the issue separately with Nobuyuki Baba, leader of Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), and Tomoko Tamura, chairwoman of the Japanese Communist Party, on Oct. 30.

Baba would not reveal the stance of the second-largest opposition party.

“We will not join hands unless there is a cause or specific reform plan,” he told reporters.

Tamura said the JCP will positively consider the CDP’s request for cooperation.

“We want to respond to the will of the people toward the LDP-Komeito administration (displayed in the Lower House election),” she said.

The DPP has said Tamaki will not meet with Noda because the party will vote for its leader.

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