Together with coalition partner the Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin, she could control up to 366 of the seats.
Japan’s first female prime minister, 64, called the rare winter snap election to capitalize on her buoyant personal approval ratings since she was elevated to lead the ruling LDP late last year.
Betting on herself, she pledged to secure a majority or step down.
A former heavy metal drummer, she says immigration and tourism has led to “foreigner fatigue” in Japan, and her nationalist rhetoric has stoked tensions with China.
LDP set for historic win in snap election
LDP set for historic win in snap election
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday night
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday night |
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party secured a historic landslide victory in Sunday’s Lower House election with NHK projections showing the party will significantly increase its seat count to between 274 and 328.
The LDP, which had 198 seats before the election, and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), are almost certain to gain control of two-thirds of the Lower House with a total of 310 seats or more. This would essentially allow the LDP-led coalition to override challenges that emerge as a result of its lack of a majority in the Upper House. In the event key bills and budgets are voted down in the Upper House, they can be overridden in the Lower House with a two-thirds majority.The opposition Central Reform Alliance (CRA), formed by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) and Komeito just before the election, meanwhile, is expected to have its preelection seats drastically reduced — to between 37 seats and 91 seats. The defeat could lead party co-leader Yoshihiko Noda, who has put his political career on the line for the new party, to resign.
The Japanese political landscape could see an outcome similar to that in 2012, when the LDP — after a disastrous 2009 election in which it lost power — regained its control of the Lower House by winning 294 seats. That victory served as the launchpad of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s almost eight-year rule over Japan. The LDP’s best past performance in a Lower House election was in 1986 — when the Upper House election was held simultaneously — during which it secured 300 seats under then-President Yasuhiro Nakasone.
Having all but secured a resounding mandate from the public, Takaichi said in a TV program Sunday night that she plans to further cement her party’s relationship with the JIP.
“We drafted a joint policy agreement line by line with the JIP, with whom we shared a similar view of the nation, when we were cornered after Komeito left the coalition,” the LDP president said.
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