Japanese PM ‘set for supermajority’ after election win
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s coalition won a landslide election victory, paving the way for tax cuts and military spending aimed at countering China that spooked financial markets.
Conservative Takaichi, who said he was inspired by Japan’s first female leader and “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, was expected to give 328 of the 465 seats in the lower house of parliament to the Liberal Democratic Party.
The LDP alone had already surpassed the 233 seats needed for a majority less than two hours after the polls closed.
Public broadcaster NHK is confident of securing a supermajority with its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin, to facilitate its legislative agenda.
“This election involved major policy changes; in particular, a major change in economic and fiscal policy, as well as a strengthening of security policy,” Takaichi said in a television interview as the results were announced.
“These are policies that face a lot of opposition. If we have public support, then we really need to tackle these issues with all our might.”
Since ascending to the leadership of the long-ruling LDP late last year, Takaichi, 64, has sought rare early winter elections to capitalize on a buoyancy in his personal approval ratings.
Voters were attracted to his outspoken, hard-working image, but his nationalist tendencies and emphasis on security strained ties with China, while his promises of tax cuts shook financial markets.
Takaichi, who has enjoyed high approval ratings since taking office in October after winning the LDP leadership race, framed the election as a referendum on his term in office and vowed to resign if his coalition failed to secure an absolute majority.
The new opposition alliance formed by the LDP’s former coalition partner, the Buddhist-backed dovish Komeito, and the progressive-leaning Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is expected to fall to half of their pre-election share of 167 total seats.
Exit polls also predicted that the anti-globalization and nationalist party Sanseito would win.
It was predicted to win five to 14 seats, up from the two it previously held.
Record snowfall in some parts of the country caused traffic confusion and some polling stations to close early, while citizens had difficulty walking through the snow to vote.
This was the third post-war election held in February, and elections were usually held in milder months.
Outside a polling station in the town of Uonuma in the mountainous prefecture of Niigata, 54-year-old teacher Kazushige Cho braved sub-freezing temperatures and deep snow to vote for Takaichi’s LDP.
“It feels like it creates a sense of direction, like the whole country coming together and moving forward. That really resonates with me,” Cho said.
But Takaichi’s election promise to suspend an 8 percent sales tax on food to help households cope with rising prices has spooked investors over how the country with the heaviest debt burden among advanced economies will finance the plan.
Takaichi said in the interview that he would accelerate sales tax relief consideration while maintaining a focus on fiscal sustainability.
“His plans to cut consumption tax leave big questions about how he will do the financing and arithmetic,” said Chris Scicluna, head of research at Daiwa Capital Markets Europe in London.
Yoshinobu Tsutsui, head of Japan’s leading business lobby Keidanren, welcomed Takaichi’s victory as a restoration of political stability.
“Japan’s economy is now at a critical juncture to achieve sustainable and strong growth,” he said.
The LDP, which has been in power for almost all of Japan’s post-war history, lost control of both chambers in elections in the last 15 months under Takaichi’s predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba.
With AP and EFE
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