Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s governing party won a commanding share of seats in Japan’s lower house in elections called shortly after her start in office, securing a two-thirds supermajority in preliminary results reported by Japanese media. With the Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, projected to take 316 seats early Monday, the LDP cleared the 261-seat threshold for an absolute majority in the 465-member lower house, NHK said. The tally would represent a record for the party since its founding in 1955 and exceeds a previous LDP high-water mark of 300 seats won in 1986 under former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.
NHK said Takaichi’s LDP also extended its performance in the lower house despite the fact that Japan’s upper house does not have a majority for her coalition. The lower-house surge, Japanese media reported, gives Takaichi room to advance legislation even as she operates under constraints in the upper chamber, the more powerful of Japan’s two houses for certain functions. The results came as her coalition sought to translate public support for the prime minister—who took office in October and became Japan’s first female prime minister—into parliamentary dominance.
Takaichi spoke on public television network NHK following her victory, saying she will emphasize policies aimed at making Japan strong and prosperous. After the results, she appeared at the LDP headquarters with a large red ribbon placed above each winner’s name as party executives applauded, according to the report. Takaichi also said she would try to gain support from the opposition while firmly pushing forward with her policy goals.
The seat totals also reflected the role of Takaichi’s coalition partner. With the Japan Innovation Party projected to win 36 seats, the ruling coalition’s combined total reached 352 seats in the lower house, the report said. Japan’s opposition, including a new centrist alliance that paired Buddhist-backed Komeito with the liberal-leaning Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, was projected to fall to about half of its combined preelection strength of 167 seats, leaving Takaichi’s bloc as the dominant force in the lower house.
The report described the campaign and its backdrop as a bet on popularity and timing. Takaichi called the early election after only three months in office, aiming to address recent difficulties for the LDP, including funding and religious scandals. The AP report also said Takaichi’s style, described as playful and tough, resonated with younger supporters who said they had not been previously interested in politics.
Looking ahead, the first major task for Takaichi after the lower house reconvenes in mid-February is a budget bill delayed by the election, the report said. Takaichi has pledged to revise security and defense policies by December, including lifting a ban on weapons exports and moving farther away from Japan’s postwar pacifist principles. The report said she is also pushing for tougher measures on foreigners, including stricter requirements for foreign property owners and a cap on foreign residents, and that experts worry such steps could undermine civil rights.
The AP report also cited concerns from outside Japan about how any constitutional or military revisions could affect regional ties. Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said South Korea would worry about any Japanese attempt to revise its pacifist constitution or further build up its military because of Japan’s wartime past. Still, the report said Takaichi is expected to maintain good relations with South Korea, in part due to shared worries about threats from North Korea and China.
Beyond foreign policy, Takaichi’s domestic agenda is expected to focus on economic measures to address rising costs and sluggish wages, with the report describing her campaign language as emphasizing “crisis management investment and growth,” including steps meant to strengthen economic security and technology and other industries. In assessments cited in the report, political scientists warned that political survival can take priority over policy outcomes. Masato Kamikubo, a Ritsumeikan University politics professor, said Sunday’s vote “underscores a problematic trend in Japanese politics in which political survival takes priority over substantive policy outcomes,” adding that when unpopular reforms are attempted, “the next election looms.”