Japan’s Prime Minister and President of the Liberal Democratic Celebration (LDP) Sanae Takaichi (R) waves to the folks upon her arrival to ship a marketing campaign speech forward of the Home of Representatives election, at Rekisen Park in Tokyo on February 7, 2026.
Philip Fong/AFP through Getty Photographs
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Philip Fong/AFP through Getty Photographs
TOKYO – Polls present Japan’s first feminine prime minister and her coalition inside attain of a decisive win in snap elections on Sunday.
Sanae Takaichi acquired an extra increase within the type of an endorsement from President Trump, which seems to be the primary time a U.S. president has backed a Japanese chief in an election. “While Trump is often an outlier,” famous a Kyodo Information Company report, “it is very rare for the leader of any country to back a specific political figure ahead of a national election in a foreign country.”
Regardless of strong approval scores principally within the 60% vary, Takaichi, whom Trump praised as “strong, powerful and wise,” has a fragile new coalition with a slender majority within the decrease home of parliament, and a minority within the higher home.
Polls predict she may win a two-thirds majority within the Home of Representatives, which may empower her to pursue a conservative agenda, with insurance policies that, by her personal admission, may show extremely controversial.
“I also want to resolutely take up challenges that include bold policies and reforms that could split public opinion,” Takaichi mentioned final month, as she tried to persuade the general public why elections had been wanted solely 4 months into her administration.
Referendum on Takaichi
Takaichi is leveraging her recognition to extend her political energy, turning the election right into a form of referendum on her and her insurance policies, says Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia College in Tokyo.
“This election is really like a presidential election,” Nakano says. Takaichi’s message appears to be: ” ‘Give me power,’ without really specifying what she’s going to do.”
However Takaichi has beforehand made a lot of her priorities clear. She is a protégé of the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and shares his ambition to forged off post-war stigma and restrictions on Japan’s army and make it a “regular” nation.
Since its institution in 1955, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Celebration (LDP) has sought to revise the nation’s post-war structure, particularly its Article 9, by which Japan renounces the correct to wage conflict as a method of resolving worldwide disputes.
At one among Prime Minister Takaichi’s latest marketing campaign rallies, 50-year-old Koichi Sato, who got here along with his household, mentioned he is nervous about world instability, and he thinks Takaichi can tackle that.
“In 10 or 20 years, our children will still have a future ahead of them, so I want Japan to be a place where they can live and feel safe.”
One other supporter, Manami Itoga, says she did not pay a lot consideration to politics earlier than Takaichi turned Prime Minister.
Simply weeks after she took workplace, Takaichi’s feedback about Taiwan triggered a diplomatic spat with China, however Itoga says she’s on the identical web page as Takaichi.
“I’m worried that Japan will somehow be taken over by Chinese people,” she says, “because the number of Chinese [in Japan] is increasing rapidly. Things like that are circulating on Instagram and other social media, aren’t they?”
Japan’s politics shift to the correct
Takaichi is making an attempt to win again voters who switched their assist from the LDP to right-wing events, together with the populist Sanseito Celebration. The celebration’s “Japan First” agenda consists of proscribing immigration, opposing identical intercourse marriage, and opposing necessary vaccinations.
Final yr, the LDP cut up with their coalition associate of 26 years, the Komeito celebration, which is affiliated with the lay Buddhist Sokka Gakkai group. To make up for the parliamentary seats it misplaced, it fashioned a brand new coalition with the conservative opposition Japan Innovation Celebration.
Takaichi’s forging ties with the smaller right-wing events is “reminiscent in some ways of the Trumpian takeover of the Republican Party,” says Sophia College’s Koichi Nakano. For instance, he argues that “Takaichi is trying to leave a personal mark on the LDP, and to become a new rallying center for the right-wing forces.”
Kyodo Information Company politics editor Masahiko Hisae says that anxiousness about perceived safety threats, together with from China, North Korea and Russia, and widening earnings disparities are shifting Japan’s politics in the identical path as different international locations.
“These factors caused the entire political spectrum, including the LDP and most Japanese, to shift from the middle slightly toward the right.”
Whether or not Takaichi can attain her formidable objectives might rely partly on how her recognition holds up, and Masahiko Hisae says public opinion in direction of her might show fickle. Her celebration has not emerged from the shadow of corruption scandals, and ties between its politicians and the Unification Church.
She has additionally confronted criticism from liberal politicians about her feedback on Taiwan, to the impact {that a} naval blockade of Taiwan may justify Japanese army intervention. China responded with a world marketing campaign of criticism and a raft of financial countermeasures, from halting Japanese seafood imports and exports of supplies with army purposes, to discouraging tourism and canceling cultural performances.
“As long as the Takaichi administration continues, restoring Japan-China relations to their original state will be a very difficult problem,” Hisae says, “and we can only wait for time to pass.”
For now, Beijing appears bored with backing down or negotiating with Takaichi.
Chie Kobayashi contributed to this report in Tokyo.
