TOKYO
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s coalition swept to a landslide election win on Sunday, paving the way for her tax cuts that have spooked financial markets and military spending aimed at countering China.
The conservative Takaichi, Japan’s first female leader who says she is inspired by Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, was projected to deliver as many as 328 of the 465 seats in parliament’s lower house for her Liberal Democratic Party.
The LDP alone had already sailed past the 233 seats needed for a majority less than two hours after polls closed. With its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin, she is certain to deliver a supermajority that would ease her legislative agenda, public broadcaster NHK projected.
WINTER ELECTION BRINGS BLIZZARD OF VOTES
“This election involved major policy shifts — particularly a major shift in economic and fiscal policy, as well as strengthening security policy,” Takaichi said in a television interview as the results rolled in.
“These are policies that have drawn a great deal of opposition. If we have received the public’s support, then we truly must tackle these issues with all our strength.”
Takaichi, 64, called the rare winter snap election to capitalise on her buoyant personal approval ratings since she was elevated to lead the long-ruling LDP late last year.
Voters have been drawn to her straight-talking, hardworking image, but her nationalistic leanings and emphasis on security have strained ties with powerful neighbour China, while her promises of tax cuts have rattled financial markets.
Residents trudged through snow to cast their ballots with record snowfall in parts of the country snarling traffic and requiring some polling stations to close early. It was only the third postwar election held in February, with elections typically called during milder months.
Outside a polling station in the town of Uonuma in the mountainous Niigata prefecture, teacher Kazushige Cho, 54, braved below-freezing temperatures and deep snow to cast his vote for Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party.
“It feels like she’s creating a sense of direction – like the whole country pulling together and moving forward. That really resonates with me,” Cho said.
But Takaichi’s election promise to suspend the 8% sales tax on food to help households cope with rising prices has spooked investors concerned about how the nation with the heaviest debt burden among advanced economies will fund the plan.
Takaichi said in the interview that she would speed up consideration for the sales tax cut while keeping the focus on fiscal sustainability.
