In Japan’s two-chamber parliament, the lower house has more power, giving it more control over governing policy.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling coalition swept to a single-party majority victory in a critical parliamentary election on Feb. 8, paving the way for the nation’s first female head of state to pursue her agenda of sweeping tax cuts and increasing military spending to counter Beijing’s influence.
Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was projected to clinch as many as 328 of the lower house’s 465 seats, a landslide supermajority, according to exit poll results cited by NHK public television and other major networks.
Her ruling coalition and its partner—the Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin—is projected to win as many as 366 seats in the lower chamber, the more powerful house in Japan’s two-chamber parliament.
Takaichi’s LDP alone had already secured the 233 seats required for a majority roughly 90 minutes after polls closed on Sunday. Her party’s sweep of 328 seats is the most it has ever won in Japan’s lower chamber.
Takaichi’s ruling coalition’s win allows the female prime minister, who has cited inspiration from Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, to pursue a conservative agenda that seeks to improve Japan’s economy and military readiness amid ongoing tensions with China and as Tokyo fosters closer ties with Washington.
Serving as Japan’s first female leader, Takaichi, 64, has been in office since October 2025.
She has promised tax cuts, emphasized national security amid growing tensions with Japan’s powerful neighbor, China, and has seen popularity among many voters for her tough-talking and hardworking image.
However, Takaichi’s promise to suspend Japan’s 8 percent sales tax on food to offset rising prices has roiled markets and investors who worry how the country with the largest debt burden among advanced economies will pay for the initiative.
“Her plans for the cut in the consumption tax leave open big question marks about funding and how she’s going to go about making the arithmetic add up,” said Chris Scicluna, head of research at Daiwa Capital Markets Europe in London.
Yoshinobu Tsutsui, the leader of Japan’s top business lobby Keidanren, said the nation’s economy is “now at a critical juncture for achieving sustainable and strong growth.”
By Jacob Burg
