Takaichi looks to translate her election gains into a new conservative shift

Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister and president of the ruling LDP

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s gamble that her personal popularity would lead to big election gains for her struggling party paid off hugely.

Yesterday, she began the process of translating that new power, made manifest in a two-thirds supermajority gained in parliamentary elections the day before, into what she hopes will be sweeping conservative legislation that will shift Japanese security, immigration, economic and social policies.

The first steps include reappointing her Cabinet and pushing forward on a delayed budget and the votes next week that will reelect her as prime minister.

Takaichi, in an interview with public television network NHK following her victory, said her efforts will make Japan strong and prosperous.

NHK, citing vote count results, said Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, alone secured 316 seats by early yesterday, comfortably surpassing a 261-seat absolute majority in the 465-member lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament. That is a record since the party’s foundation in 1955. With the 36 seats won by its new ally, Japan Innovation Party, the ruling coalition won 352 seats.

A smiling Takaichi placed a big red ribbon above each winner’s name on a signboard at LDP headquarters as accompanying party executives applauded.

Despite the lack of a majority in the upper house, the huge jump from the preelection share in the more powerful lower house allows Takaichi to make progress on policies that aim to boost Japan’s economy and military capabilities as tensions grow with China and she tries to nurture ties with the United States.

Takaichi said she would try to gain support from the opposition while firmly pushing forward with her policy goals.

“I will be flexible,” she said.

Takaichi is popular, but the LDP, which has ruled Japan for most of the last seven decades, has been hit with funding and religious scandals in recent years. She called Sunday’s early election after only three months in office, hoping to turn that around while her popularity is high.

Takaichi, who took office as Japan’s first female leader in October, pledged to “work, work, work,” and her style, which is seen as both playful and tough, has resonated with younger fans who say they weren’t previously interested in politics.

The opposition, despite the formation of a new centrist alliance and a rising far-right, was too splintered to be a real challenger. The new opposition alliance of LDP’s former coalition partner, Buddhist-backed dovish Komeito, and the liberal-leaning Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, is projected to sink to half of their combined preelection share of 167 seats.

Takaichi was betting with this election that her LDP party, together with its new partner, the JIP, would secure a majority.

U.S. President Donald Trump in a post on his Truth Social platform Sunday congratulated Takaichi “on a LANDSLIDE Victory in today’s very important Vote. She is a highly respected and very popular Leader. Sanae’s bold and wise decision to call for an Election paid off big time.”

Akihito Iwatake, a 53-year-old office worker, said he welcomed the big LDP win because he felt the party became too liberal in recent years. “With Takaichi shifting things more toward the conservative side, I think that brought this positive result,” he said. MARI YAMAGUCHI, TOKYO, MDT/AP