TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Komeito quit the ruling coalition on Friday, dealing a blow to new Liberal Democratic Party leader Sanae Takaichi’s premiership bid and potentially to her party’s grip on power in the world’s fourth-largest economy.

TAKAICHI’S PM BID JUST GOT HARDER

The LDP-Komeito coalition had lost its combined majority in both houses of parliament over the past year under outgoing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

Takaichi, however, was widely expected to have a solid chance of becoming Japan’s first female prime minister with the support of Komeito when parliament votes to select a new premier this month, as the LDP is still by far the biggest party.

But if the three major opposition parties – the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People, a

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