Takaichi re-elected Japan PM…landslide win in Lower House vote

JOON HYOUNG LEE

Summary

It reported that Prime Minister Takaichi was re-elected as the 105th prime minister following an election victory, reinforcing political stability.
Takaichi said she will pursue conservative security policies and “responsible proactive fiscal spending” together with her coalition partner.
It reported that Takaichi will push for a defense spending increase, easing of arms export rules, cuts to the consumption tax on food, and early passage of the FY2026 budget bill.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the country’s first female premier and president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was re-elected on the 18th in the prime minister-designate vote at the House of Representatives plenary session of an extraordinary Diet convened that day.

Takaichi, who took office as the 104th prime minister in late October last year, dissolved the Lower House early on the 23rd of last month in a high-stakes move to shore up her power base. In the general election on the 8th of this month, the LDP scored a sweeping victory by securing more than two-thirds of the seats, and as expected she was chosen as the 105th prime minister.

A separate vote is also held in the House of Councillors. However, if the results differ between the Upper and Lower houses, the Lower House vote takes precedence, making Takaichi’s re-election as prime minister effectively assured.

Takaichi will launch her second cabinet later that day. She has decided to keep all ministers in their posts without reshuffling.

Together with her coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, Takaichi is expected to pursue a conservative security agenda and to press ahead with economic policies branded as “responsible proactive fiscal spending.” She has previously signaled her determination to move quickly to revise the three key national security documents to strengthen defense capabilities and increase defense spending (the defense budget), significantly relax rules on arms exports, enhance intelligence-gathering functions, and enact a law criminalizing the desecration of the national flag.

She is also expected to discuss options related to revising the pacifist Constitution, unchanged since its promulgation in 1946, including explicitly defining the Self-Defense Forces—effectively a military—within the Constitution. If the constitutional revision effort bears fruit, Japan is likely to move toward becoming, in effect, a “war-capable state” for the first time in more than 80 years since the end of the Pacific War.

In addition, Takaichi is expected to accelerate discussions on cutting the consumption tax on food and to push for passage of the FY2026 (April 2026–March 2027) budget bill as early as possible.