In a new Japan Daily Briefing, financial markets reacted to Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s declaration that she will campaign on looser fiscal policy with a surge in bond yields, highlighting the challenge awaiting the prime minister. Meanwhile, the Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA), product of a merger between the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) and Kōmeitō, continues to organize itself, pulling in all but one CDP incumbent and even an incumbent from the Democratic Party for the People (DPFP). Finally, Sanseitō is articulating a strategy whereby it will run against some LDP lawmakers while endorsing Takaichi’s policies as similar to its own.