Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister and president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Occasion (LDP), places pins marking the names of candidates who gained decrease home elections on the LDP headquarters Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026 in Tokyo.
Keisuke Hosojima/Kyodo Information/AP
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Keisuke Hosojima/Kyodo Information/AP
SEOUL — Japan’s first feminine Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, introduced the ruling Liberal Democratic Occasion (LDP) its largest electoral victory in its 71-year historical past, fueling her ambitions to pursue to a political agenda which she herself says might “cut up public opinion.”
The snap elections for the decrease home of parliament had been held regardless of the shortest marketing campaign interval in post-war historical past, and large snowstorms throughout a lot of Japan.
Benefitting from Takaichi’s reputation, the LDP gained a two-thirds majority within the decrease home, sufficient to override vetoes by the opposition-controlled higher home.
It will additionally enable the LDP to provoke amendments to Japan’s pacifist structure, which the get together has sought to revise since its founding in 1955, and Takaichi mentioned she would pave the best way for an eventual referendum on the difficulty.
It is the most important majority any single Japanese get together has gained within the decrease home within the post-war period. An unprecedented 90% of candidates fielded by the LDP gained.
Charismatic Japanese leaders, together with Takaichi’s mentor former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have helped the LDP stage comebacks earlier than.
It is a function of Japan’s politics, which RAND Company Japan knowledgeable Jeffrey Hornung says “are always very personalistic. People always look to the leader, not so much the party.”
Japan’s Nikkei inventory index jumped to a report excessive, bond yields went up, and Japan’s foreign money the Yen went down, in anticipation of Takaichi’s stimulus spending and tax cuts.
Questions and criticisms stay about how Takaichi pays for these priorities, on condition that Japan’s authorities debt is greater than 200% of GDP.
However Takaichi apparently feels her mandate will empower her to brush apart obstacles.
“We have advocated policies facing significant opposition,” Takaichi mentioned at LDP headquarters, “including a major shift in economic and fiscal policy, strengthening our security policy, and enhancing intelligence capabilities.”
Takaichi’s lopsided victory comes amid a common shift to the political proper in Japan.
Following Takaichi’s election as LDP president final yr, the LDP’s coalition companion of 26 years, the centrist Komeito Occasion, left the bloc. The LDP then joined a brand new coalition with the right-wing populist Japan Innovation Occasion.
Komeito joined a brand new coalition known as the Centrist Reform Alliance, which misplaced most of their seats within the snap election, prompting their leaders to resign.
Takaichi additionally restated at her press convention her intention to revise Japan’s Nationwide Protection Technique and associated paperwork. She didn’t say what precisely she would possibly change, however she has beforehand hinted that she might rework the nation’s longstanding insurance policies to not produce, possess or share nuclear weapons.
“This year marks 10 years since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Takaichi instructed the press convention. “I aim to deepen this vision.”
The primary Trump administration adopted the idea of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific, envisioning like-minded nations upholding a rules-based worldwide order towards revisionist powers, implied to imply China.
Takaichi pledged to proceed to make use of the Japan-U.S. alliance because the cornerstone of overseas coverage, and plans to satisfy with President Trump subsequent month.
Trump is scheduled to go to China in April. Takaichi, in the meantime, is on the middle of a diplomatic stalemate with Beijing, over her feedback {that a} Chinese language blockade of Taiwan might set off a Japanese navy response.
The Trump administration emphasizes that its allies should bear a larger share of protection and different burdens.
And RAND’s Jeffrey Hornung says Takaichi could also be higher positioned than her predecessors to ship such outcomes.
“She can’t say anymore, ‘well, I can’t do that because the opposition parties will turn it down.’ I mean, she has the numbers to pass policies and do things.”
Chie Kobayashi contributed to this report in Tokyo.
