Japan election results confirm super-majority for Takaichi’s party

Official results showed Tuesday that the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), led by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, had a two-thirds majority after winning 315 seats in weekend emergency elections.

The result is the best in the history of the LDP and gives Japan’s first female prime minister the opportunity to leave her mark on the 123 million-person nation over the course of the following four years.

According to figures from the internal affairs ministry, the LDP’s coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), secured 36 seats, giving the ruling bloc 351 members in the lower house, which has 465 members.

The JIP held 34 seats in the previous parliament, while the LDP held just 198.

The election also saw the anti-immigration Sanseito party increase its tally to 15 seats from two, the results showed.

The new Centrist Reform Alliance of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party and the LDP’s previous partner Komeito suffered a disaster, with their tally collapsing to 49 from 167.

Having a two-thirds majority enables the government to override decisions by the upper house where the coalition is in a minority.

It also gives Takaichi the option of embarking on the complicated task of trying to change the constitution, something she has indicated she wants to do.

“This is the start of a heavy, heavy responsibility to make Japan stronger, more prosperous,” Takaichi, 64, told a news conference on Monday.

“We believe that the public has shown understanding and sympathy regarding our appeals concerning the urgent need for a major policy shift,” she said.

Takaichi called the emergency election last month, taking advantage of her honeymoon period after being elected Japan’s fifth premier in as many years in October.

In male-dominated Japanese politics, Takaichi has demonstrated little interest in defining her leadership in terms of gender, even though she is the nation’s first female premier.

The official results showed that the number of female lawmakers fell from 73 to 68.

However, she has been popular with voters, particularly the younger generation, and her handbag and her collaboration with the president of South Korea on a K-pop song have been embraced by admirers.