THE NEW YORK TIMES: Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi won a sweeping mandate from voters for her economic agenda and tough stances on immigration and China.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan made a big gamble on Sunday, holding a snap election only 110 days after she became the first woman to serve as the country’s prime minister. It paid off, with voters offering a resounding mandate for her economic policies and tough stance on immigration and China.
Ms. Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party won in a landslide, securing an absolute majority in Japan’s 465-member House of Representatives, the lower house of Japan’s bicameral Parliament, according to NHK, the public broadcaster. As of early Monday in Japan, the party had won at least 310 seats, up from 198, NHK said.
The result clears the way for Ms. Takaichi to enact a conservative agenda on defense and social issues and to strengthen her position on the global stage, with President Trump having given her candidacy a ringing endorsement.
The outcome is a remarkable reversal of fortune for Ms. Takaichi’s party, which governed Japan for much of the past seven decades but has suffered a series of bruising defeats in recent years, leaving it in the unusual position of being a minority in both houses of Parliament. » | Javier C. Hernández, River Akira Davis, Kiuko Notoya and Hisako Ueno | Reporting from Tokyo | Sunday, February 8, 2026
