Japan PM Takaichi Wins Snap Election By Landslide Victory

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party has secured a two-thirds supermajority in the country’s lower house, delivering a landslide election victory for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Takaichi became Japan’s 104th prime minister on October 21, 2025, following a vote in the Diet, after winning the LDP leadership election earlier that month. She is the first woman to hold the post.

The snap election—an early poll held before the end of a parliament’s fixed term—conducted on February 8, 2026, which Takaichi called to seek public support early in her term. Her strong personal popularity is widely seen as key to the scale of the win.

In a televised interview with public broadcaster NHK, Takaichi said she was ready to push ahead with policies aimed at making Japan “strong and prosperous”.

According to NHK, the LDP alone won 316 seats, well above the 261-seat majority mark in the 465-member House of Representatives, Japan’s more powerful parliamentary chamber.

The outcome marks the largest seat haul in the LDP’s history since its founding in 1955, surpassing the previous record of 300 seats won in 1986 under former prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.

World leaders congratulated Takaichi on her victory. Donald Trump praised her as a “highly respected and very popular” leader and wished her success in advancing a “Peace Through Strength” agenda, while Narendra Modi described the result as “landmark” and said India–Japan ties would reach “greater heights”.