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Takaichi will be reappointed as Japan's prime minister with a goal of pushing to the right

Manila Bulletin

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February 19, 2026

Last week Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi won a landslide election that she hopes will allow her to move her nation’s policies hard right.

On Wednesday she will be reappointed as prime minister by the parliament and form her second Cabinet.It’s a formality, but Takaichi will look to use the symbolism of the day to further boost her Liberal Democratic Party as it looks to capitalize on a two-thirds supermajority in the lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two parliamentary chambers.

Her goals include an increase in military power, more government spending and strengthened conservative social policies.

The power of a supermajority

Having two-thirds control of the 465-seat lower house allows Takaichi’s party to dominate top posts in house committees and push through bills rejected by the upper house, the chamber where the LDP-led ruling coalition lacks a majority.

Takaichi wants to bolster Japan’s military capability and arms sales, tighten immigration policies, push male-only imperial succession rules and preserve a criticized tradition that pressures women into abandoning their surnames.

Her ambition to revise the U.S.-drafted postwar pacifist Constitution might have to wait, for now, as she is facing pressure to deal with rising prices, a declining population and worries about military security.

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