Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling coalition won a super-majority of at least two-thirds of the seats in yesterday’s snap lower house elections, national broadcaster NHK projected.
Takaichi’s ruling bloc capitalized on her honeymoon start as Japan’s first female prime minister.
If confirmed, it would be the best result for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since elections in 2017 under Takaichi’s mentor, assassinated former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Photo: AP
The LDP alone was seen winning about 300 of the 465 seats up for grabs, up from 198, and regaining a majority lost in 2024 — and potentially a super-majority on its own.
“We received backing for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s responsible, proactive fiscal policies and a strengthening of national defense capabilities,” LDP Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki told Japanese media.
The new Centrist Reform Alliance of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party and the LDP’s previous partner Komeito looked to have lost more than two-thirds of its 167 seats.
The anti-immigration Sanseito party was projected to have increased its seats from two to between five and 14, NHK said.
Takaichi has injected new life into the LDP, which has governed Japan almost non-stop for decades, but which has shed support in the past few elections because of unhappiness about rising prices and corruption.
Takaichi, 64, was a heavy metal drummer in her youth, an admirer of Britain’s “Iron Lady,” former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and on the ultra-conservative fringe of the LDP when she became party chief and prime minister in October last year.
She has defied pessimists to be a hit with voters, especially young ones, with fans lapping up everything from her handbag to her jamming to a K-pop song with the South Korean president.
However, she will have to deliver on the economy.
“With prices rising like this, what matters most to me is what policies they’ll adopt to deal with inflation,” Chika Sakamoto, 50, said yesterday at a voting station in a snowy Tokyo.
Takaichi’s election triumph might also cause consternation in Beijing.
Barely two weeks in office, Takaichi — seen before assuming the premiership as a China hawk — suggested that Japan could intervene militarily if Beijing sought to take Taiwan by force.
With Takaichi having days earlier pulled out all the stops to welcome US President Donald Trump, Beijing was furious with her unscripted remarks.
It summoned Tokyo’s ambassador, warned its citizens against visiting Japan and conducted joint air drills with Russia.
Japan’s last two pandas were even returned to China last month.
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