{"id":13645,"date":"2026-01-19T07:39:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T07:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=13645"},"modified":"2026-01-19T07:39:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T07:39:49","slug":"japan-pm-takaichi-set-to-call-snap-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=13645","title":{"rendered":"Japan PM Takaichi set to call snap election"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is widely expected to call for a snap election, less than three months after taking office, in a bid to shore up greater support.<\/p>\n

Unnamed officials told local media Takaichi would announce the date of the lower house election at a press conference on Monday afternoon. Japanese voters would then elect the 465 members of the House of Representatives, the lower and more powerful house in Japan.<\/p>\n

Takaichi and her cabinet have enjoyed high public support since taking office last October.<\/p>\n

Her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) currently has 199 seats – including three held by its independent partners – in the House of Representatives, the most out of any party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The LDP’s coalition with the Japan Innovation party has just enough seats for a majority in the lower house.<\/p>\n

A protege of former conservative PM Shinzo Abe and self-professed admirer of Margaret Thatcher, Takaichi, Japan’s first female leader, is known as the country’s “Iron Lady”.<\/p>\n

In December, her cabinet approved a record defence budget of nine trillion yen ($57bn; \u00a343bn). This comes amid growing concern over China, with Tokyo describing its neighbour’s military activities in the region as its “greatest strategic challenge”.<\/p>\n

Takaichi has found herself the target of China’s ire since last November, when she made comments<\/a> suggesting that Japan could respond with its own self-defence force if China attacked Taiwan.<\/p>\n

The diplomatic spat that ensued has sent bilateral ties plunging to their lowest point in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Takaichi has pursued closer ties with the US. During US President Donald Trump’s visit to Japan last October, the two leaders heaped praise on each other and signed a deal on rare earths. They also signed a document heralding a new “golden age” of US-Japan relations.<\/p>\n

On domestic policy, Takaichi is an advocate for heavy government-led spending to drive economic growth – a revival of the sort of stimulus measures that Japan saw under “Abenomics”.<\/p>\n

As of December, Takaichi and her administration have charted approval ratings of 60-80% in major polls.<\/p>\n

But her snap election gamble comes with its own set of risks.<\/p>\n

The LDP’s leadership has been on shaky ground, and Takaichi is the country’s fourth PM in five years. Her predecessors’ terms were cut short by falling public support and scandals.<\/p>\n

Her immediate predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, also announced a snap election shortly after taking office – leading to one of the LDP’s worst ever results and costing the party its majority in the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

Another challenge looms in the form of a new, consolidated opposition. Japan’s largest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, formed a new centrist party with the Komeito party, the LDP’s former coalition partner, last week. <\/p>\n

The new party, the Centrist Reform Alliance, will challenge the LDP in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Japan #Takaichi #set #call #snap #election<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}