Name: Polls close in Japan as PM Takaichi seeks bigger mandate in Parliament | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-02-08T17:17:24.000Z
Duration: 3 min 26 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Voters braved the snow to cast their ballots in what many are seeing as a referendum on Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's leadership.

Japan's first female prime minister is hoping that strong approval ratings will translate into a bigger mandate in parliament for her party.

Opinion polls suggest the gamble may pay off with many voters drawn to her direct station style.

And journalist Sonia Blaschke joins us now from Tokyo.

So the Japanese Prime Minister Sana Takaichi had hoped for an easy win in this snap election.

I think it's highly likely that her gamble will have paid off.

It's of course, too early now to, you know, give any specific percentages.

But given really high popularity among voters, it is very likely that, like I said, her gamble will have paid off.

And I mean, on the one hand she is very popular.

On the other hand, the opposition is also very, very weak.

So this combination makes it very likely for her to be able to realize many of her policies in the future.

Now, where's this popularity actually coming from?

I mean, Takechi is known as a hard line conservative with strong views on gender.

Are those really the issues that voters care about most?

I mean, she's been really good at appealing to the voters, national pride in a sense, but

And many people are very concerned because the prices of food, for example, have risen considerably in the last year.

So they are worried about, you know, the lack of money in their wallets.

Markets and also housing prices have gone up quite a bit.

That is also related indirectly to immigration because foreign buyers have affected the Japanese market.

So she's been focusing very much on the economy.

And you also mentioned security, of course, key issues like strong defense policies and a more nationalist direction.

So if Takaichi wins the snap election, what's that mean for Japan's foreign policy?

I think we'll be seeing more of the same.

She's been showing a sort of assertive playfulness so far, and

I think she will continue that because that's brought her a lot of success.

But I think we'll see even more of that assertiveness and also more of her trying to forge ties with other conservative leaders around the world.

She will also try to increase defense spending.

Japan has a very, has a pacifistic constitution, but

she will probably try to change that and use her popularity to do that.

Journalist Sonia Blaschke reporting from Tokyo.