The Japanese legislature, known as the Diet, is set to meet for an extraordinary session to vote for the next prime minister.
The vote on Tuesday follows the collapse of a 26-year-old partnership earlier this month between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the smaller Komeito party after Sanae Takaichi took the helm of the LDP.
The LDP has been the dominant force in Japanese politics since the 1950s, but over the past two years, it has lost its majority in both legislative houses after failing to address a series of problems, including a major corruption scandal and Japan’s cost-of-living crisis.
Now, the LDP is at risk of losing power completely unless it can bring another opposition party to its side.
Some Japanese media reports suggested on Sunday that the LDP had reached an