Prime Minister (PM) Japan Sanae Takaichi achieved a landslide victory in the by-election held on Sunday (8/2) local time. His Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won a two-thirds majority of seats in the country’s influential lower house.
Takaichi and the LDP’s victory paved the way for his administration’s promised tax cuts, which rocked financial markets, and paved the way for greater military spending aimed at deterring China.
Takaichi, who will serve as Japan’s first female PM since October 2025, announced last month a rare winter snap election to capitalize on her soaring popularity since she was appointed to lead Japan’s long-ruling LDP.
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As Japan’s fifth PM in the last five years, Takaichi’s political gamble has produced extraordinary results.
The figure of Takaichi, who said he was inspired by the British “Iron Lady”, Margaret Thatcher, as reported Reuters And AFPMonday (9/2/2026), won 316 seats out of 465 seats in the lower house of the Japanese parliament, for the LDP he leads. This result is the best result ever achieved by the LDP.
With his coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, also known as Ishin, Takaichi will now control a total of 352 parliamentary seats, far exceeding the threshold of two-thirds of the seats in the lower house of parliament.
This gave Takaichi a supermajority, or supermajorityin the Japanese parliament, which would facilitate his legislative agenda because with that much dominance, he could overrule the upper house of the Japanese parliament, where he does not have a majority.
“This election involves major policy changes — especially major changes in economic and fiscal policy, as well as strengthening security policies,” Takaichi said in an interview with local television, on Sunday (8/2) evening, as the election results began to come in.
“This is a policy that has drawn a lot of opposition… If we have received public support, then we really have to tackle these problems with all our might,” he said.
President United States of America (AS) Donald Trump congratulated Takaichi on his victory in the Japanese elections. He wished Takaichi “great success in passing the conservative, peace through strength agenda.”
“Sanae’s bold and wise decision to call an election paid off in a big way,” said Trump, who will host Takaichi at the White House next month.
See also Video: The figure of Sanae Takaichi, the first woman to become PM of Japan
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(nvc/ita)
date:2026-02-09 01:57:00
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