Takaichi needs more than her electoral popularity to succeed

Japan’ leader scored a big win but her policy tests will come now

- GEAROID REIDY

The streets of Tokyo were dusted with a rare snowfall as election day broke on Sunday as a blizzard gripped much of Japan. But bad weather couldn't deter the electorate, which turned out in greater numbers than in the last vote in 2024. They were given a simple question: whether or not to endorse Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi with a mandate to rule.

Past prime ministers have typically hung such votes on a policy issue. In a gamble on her popularity, Takaichi called on the electorate to endorse her personally. "As a country with a parliamentary system, there is no means by which the citizens can choose their prime minister directly,” she said last month. “I want the Japanese people to make the decision directly on whether to entrust the management of the nation to Sanae Takaichi.”. Management has been entrusted. Now, she must repay that trust.

The margin of victory is far more resounding than almost anyone could have expected. Her 316 seats exceed the achievements of any leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Even Shinzo Abe, her late mentor and Japan’s longest-serving leader, did not realize this level of success. A two-thirds majority in the lower house makes her minority position in the upper house largely an irrelevance, as bills rejected by the upper house can be forced through. And it sets her up to be one of the most consequential leaders the country has known for years.