Polls opened Sunday in parliamentary elections that Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hopes will give her struggling party a big enough win to push through an ambitious conservative political agenda.
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.
The latest surveys indicated a landslide win in the lower house for the LDP. The opposition, despite the formation of a new centrist alliance and a rising far-right, is seen as too splintered to be a real challenger.
Takaichi is betting that her LDP party, together with its new partner, the Japan Innovation Party, will secure a majority in the 465-seat lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament.
Recent surveys by major Japanese newspapers show a possibility that Takaichi’s party could win a simple majority on its own while her coalition could win as many as 300 seats, a big jump from a thin majority it held since a 2024 election loss.
If the LDP fails to win a majority, “I will step down,” she said.
A big win by Takaichi’s coalition could mean a significant shift to the right in Japan’s security, immigration and other policies, with its right-wing partner JIP’s leader Hirofumi Yoshimura saying his party will serve as an “accelerator.”
