Victory in Snap Lower House Election After Early Dissolution
Expected to Push Conservative Security Policies
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the country’s first female prime minister, has been re-elected after a landslide victory in the House of Representatives election.
According to NHK and other outlets on the 18th, Prime Minister Takaichi was chosen as the 105th prime minister after winning 354 out of 464 votes in a prime ministerial designation vote held at a plenary session of the House of Representatives (the lower house) during an extraordinary Diet session convened that day.
Prime Minister Takaichi previously took office as the 104th prime minister in late October last year. On January 23, she dissolved the House of Representatives early to strengthen her power base, and on February 8, the Liberal Democratic Party swept more than two-thirds of the seats in the general election, leading to her re-election as prime minister as widely expected on the 18th.
Prime Minister Takaichi will launch her second cabinet on the 18th, but all ministers will remain in their posts without any reshuffle.
Going forward, Prime Minister Takaichi is expected to focus on implementing her economic policy agenda, epitomized by what she calls “responsible proactive fiscal policy.”
In addition, she is expected to push ahead with conservative security policies together with the Japan Innovation Party, her coalition partner. Prime Minister Takaichi has shown strong interest in the early revision of the three key national security documents to strengthen defense capabilities and increase defense spending (the defense budget), in drastically easing restrictions on arms exports, in bolstering intelligence-gathering functions, and in creating a criminal offense for desecration of the national flag. In particular, with regard to revising the pacifist Constitution, which has never been amended since it was promulgated in 1946, she is expected to discuss measures such as explicitly stipulating the Self-Defense Forces, which function as a de facto military.
In addition, Prime Minister Takaichi is expected to accelerate discussions on cutting the consumption tax on food, while at the same time seeking to secure passage of the budget for fiscal year 2026 through the Diet as quickly as possible.
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