Photo/Illutration The chairs of the Diet Affairs Committees of three opposition parties could not agree on a unified candidate for prime minister during a meeting in the Diet on Sept. 30. (Takeshi Iwashita)

Disunity among the major opposition parties means that the winner of the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election is almost certain to become Japan’s next prime minister.

A change in government is conceivable since the ruling coalition of the LDP and Komeito lacks a majority in both Diet chambers.

If the other parties all backed the same individual as prime minister in a Diet vote, a non-LDP politician could succeed Shigeru Ishiba as the nation’s leader.

But on Sept. 30, the chairs of the Diet Affairs Committees of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) and the Democratic Party for the People could not agree on such a unified opposition candidate for prime minister.

The three opposition parties were so far apart in the meeting that doubts were raised as to how serious the CDP was about uniting behind a single candidate.

Although the CDP proposed the meeting, Hirofumi Ryu, its Diet Affairs Committee chair, did not even suggest a possible candidate whom the three parties could support.

Motohisa Furukawa, the DPP committee chair, said his party would vote for party leader Yuichiro Tamaki.

Takashi Endo, Ishin’s chair, said, “The three parties have different stances and circumstances.”

Ishin is reportedly making moves to join the LDP-led coalition in the next Diet session.

Endo added that he did not feel that CDP officials were serious about conducting backdoor negotiations to coordinate the views of the three parties.

The LDP on Oct. 4 will choose a new party president to succeed Ishiba, who announced his resignation in September.

A special Diet session is expected to be convened after the middle of October to pick the next prime minister.

The disunity in the opposition camp sets up a repeat of the special Diet session in November last year, when Ishiba was chosen again as prime minister even after the LDP lost its majority in the Lower House election.

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