TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi dissolved the lower house of parliament on Friday, paving the way for an early election on February 8.
The move is an attempt to capitalise on her popularity to help the governing party regain ground after major losses in recent years, but it will delay parliamentary approval for a budget that aims at boosting a struggling economy and addressing soaring prices.
Takaichi, elected in October as Japan’s first female leader, has been in office only three months, but she has seen strong approval ratings of about 70 per cent.
Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party could still face some challenges as it reels from a series of scandals about corruption and the party’s past ties to the Unification Church. But it’s not clear if the new opposition Centrist
Reform Alliance can attract moderate voters, while opposition parties are still too splintered to pose a serious threat to the LDP.
Takaichi is also seeing rising animosity with China since making remarks on Taiwan. And US President Donald Trump wants her to spend more on weapons, as Washington and Beijing pursue military superiority in the region.
The dissolution of the 465-member lower House of Representatives paves the way for a 12-day campaign that officially starts Tuesday. When Speaker Fukushiro Nukaga declared the dissolution, lawmakers stood up, shouted banzai — “long live” — three times and rushed out to prepare for the campaign.
Takaichi’s plan for an early election aims to capitalise on her popularity to win a governing majority in the lower House, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament, called the National Diet.
The scandal-tainted LDP and its coalition had a slim majority in the lower House after an election loss in 2024.
The coalition lacks a majority in the upper House of Councillors and relies on winning votes from opposition members to pass its agenda.