The party’s support for Tamaki means the report is unlikely ... Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is widely seen keeping his post due to the state of fragmentation among opposition parties and their failure to coalesce around an alternative candidate.

Yuichiro Tamaki, the head of the Japanese opposition party that has emerged as kingmaker as lawmakers select the next prime minister on Monday, said a tabloid report about his extra-marital affair with a model was "basically true".