Japan’s Takaichi to pursue conservative agenda after election landslide : NPR
Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister and president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Get together (LDP), places pins marking the names of candidates who received 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 Get together (LDP) its greatest electoral victory in its 71-year historical past, fueling her ambitions to pursue to a political agenda which she herself says may “cut up public opinion.”
The snap elections for the decrease home of parliament have 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 recognition, the LDP received 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 stated she would pave the way in which for an eventual referendum on the problem.
It is the most important majority any single Japanese get together has received within the decrease home within the post-war period. An unprecedented 90% of candidates fielded by the LDP received.
Charismatic Japanese leaders, together with Takaichi’s mentor former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have helped the LDP stage comebacks earlier than.
It is a characteristic of Japan’s politics, which RAND Company Japan skilled Jeffrey Hornung says “are at all times very personalistic. Individuals at all times look to the chief, not a lot the get together.”
Japan’s Nikkei inventory index jumped to a report excessive, bond yields went up, and Japan’s forex the Yen initially went down, earlier than reversing course later.
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 comb apart obstacles.
“We now have advocated insurance policies going through important opposition,” Takaichi stated at LDP headquarters, “together with a significant shift in financial and monetary coverage, strengthening our safety coverage, and enhancing intelligence capabilities.”
Takaichi’s lopsided victory comes amid a normal shift to the political proper in Japan.
Following Takaichi’s election as LDP president final 12 months, the LDP’s coalition associate of 26 years, the centrist Komeito Get together, left the bloc. The LDP then joined a brand new coalition with the right-wing populist Japan Innovation Get together.
Komeito joined a brand new coalition referred to 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 may rework the nation’s longstanding insurance policies to not possess, produce or share nuclear weapons.
“This 12 months marks 10 years since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Takaichi advised the press convention. “I purpose to deepen this imaginative and prescient.”
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 international coverage, and plans to fulfill 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 may set off a Japanese navy response.
The Trump administration emphasizes that its allies should bear a higher 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 will be able to’t say anymore, ‘effectively, I am unable to do this as a result of the opposition events will flip it down.’ I imply, she has the numbers to go insurance policies and do issues.”
Chie Kobayashi contributed to this report in Tokyo.
