Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was on course for a thumping victory in snap elections on Sunday, February, a result that could rile China and worry financial markets. Capitalizing on her honeymoon start as Japan’s first woman premier, Takaichi’s ruling bloc looked to have secured a two-thirds majority in the lower house, according to media estimates.
The result would be the best for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since the 2017 elections under Takaichi’s mentor, assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe. The LDP alone was seen winning about 300 of the 465 seats up for grabs, up from 198, regaining a majority – and potentially a super-majority on its own without its junior partner, the Japan Innovation Party.
“We have consistently stressed the importance of responsible and proactive fiscal policy,” a beaming Takaichi said late on Sunday. “We will prioritize the sustainability of fiscal policy. We will ensure necessary investments. Public and private sectors must invest. We will build a strong and resilient economy,” she said.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hailed a “big victory” for Takaichi, saying that “when Japan is strong, the US is strong in Asia.”
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, broadcaster NHK said.
A hit with voters
Takaichi has injected new life into the LDP, which has governed Japan almost non-stop for decades but which has shed support in recent elections because of unhappiness about rising prices and corruption.
A heavy metal drummer in her youth and an admirer of Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, Takaichi was on the ultra-conservative fringe of the LDP when she became party chief and prime minister in October. 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 South Korea’s president.
She also pulled out all the stops to welcome US President Donald Trump shortly after she took office. Two days before the polls, Trump endorsed Takaichi as a “strong, powerful, and wise Leader, and one that truly loves her Country.”
But she will have to deliver on the economy and inflation, which contributed to the demise of her two predecessors, Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. “With prices rising like this, what matters most to me is what policies they’ll adopt to deal with inflation,” Chika Sakamoto, 50, told Agence France-Presse at a voting station in a snowy Tokyo on Sunday. “Prices for just about everything are really going up, but incomes aren’t rising much, so our disposable income is shrinking,” she said.
