Name: The Japanese give their first female prime minister the greatest possible power | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-02-09T03:02:04.000Z
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A gamble by Japan's Prime Minister to increase her party's power in Parliament appears to have paid off big time.

Broadcaster NHK is projecting that the Liberal Democratic Party of Sanae Takechi will win more than two thirds of the seats in the lower house.

That would allow the LDP to govern without a coalition partner and make more sweeping policy changes.

The snap election she called in January January was seen as a referendum on her leadership.

We sought the public's judgment on a major shift in economic and fiscal policy.

We campaigned for a responsible, proactive approach.

And that vision for Japan's future has clicked with voters.

Takechi, an ultra conservative who became Japan's first woman prime minister in October, has made populist economic promises with the hope of boosting Japanese growth.

She has taken a tough stance on immigration, which her critics say has created division in a country with few foreign nationals.

Takaichi has also been a keen supporter of changing Japan's pacifist constitution.

Internationally, Takaichi has had the endorsement of US President Donald Trump, but

relations with Beijing are strained after she suggested that Japan would intervene if China invaded Taiwan.

Her popularity, particularly among younger voters and a strong social media presence has worked.

However, her conservative Liberal Democratic Party, or ldp, which has governed Japan for most of the past seven decades, has been struggling.

Scandals and a new opposition alliance have caused serious challenges for the party.

Opinion is divided over Takeichi's victory.

Over the past several years, the LDP has been quite liberal with Takaichi.

Things shifted towards a more conservative position and I think that led to this result.

It seems the opinions of younger people are not being reflected very much.

Or rather there's a visible lack of effort among young people themselves to try to have their views reflected.

Sanai Takechi will now have to live up to her pledge to work, work, work, work and work.

Alright, let's cross over to Stephen Nogg in Tokyo.

He's a professor at the Department of Politics and International Studies at the International Christian University there.

You've got a big job explaining this to us.

When you look at today's results, what is the headline for you?

What story are these voters telling us so clearly?

Well, I think at the foreign policy level, the biggest, biggest headline would be, thank you, Mr. Xi.

I don't think that Prime Minister Takechi would have had such an overwhelming response to her.

Her pushback against Chinese economic coercion and the massive disinformation campaign after her statements back in November about Taiwan.

It's allowed her to demonstrate leadership.

It's allowed her to demonstrate her ability to create broad coalitions and partnerships globally to push back against this kind of domestic behavior or international behavior.

But at the international level, the headline would be inflation, wages and creating a better environment for families.

These are the big problems that are facing ordinary Japanese today.

And she's going to have a big challenge in dealing with these issues.

And you probably noticed I didn't say immigration or revising the constitution and that was quite intentional.

These aren't the priorities for ordinary Japanese citizens.

How do the ordinary Japanese feel about the relationship you mentioned?

The other side, naturally, I guess, is the U.S. japan alliance.

How do we understand that in practical terms?

How's that going to play out in Japan now?

Well, the Japanese have always been, you know, worried about whether the United States would abandon them or not for some deal with China or otherwise.

And this has been something that they've worried about about since the end of the Cold War period.

And President Trump with his unorthodox policies, his Liberation Day and of course his approach to Xi Jinping has made the Japanese more anxious.

But I think Prime Minister Takechi has raised used that expression, a limitless alliance to demonstrate that the United States and Japan are a relationship that goes beyond leaders, that they have shared interests in peace and stability in the region.

And ensuring that ill considered considered military intervention over Taiwan or gray zone tactics and hybrid tactics in the South China Sea would be really destabilizing for the whole region and most importantly destabilizing for the Chinese economy, which spills over to the political system in China.

From the Chinese point of view, let's be frank, this relationship is an economic relationship.

They have deep, deep, deep mutual security concerns about each other.

And I think whether Takechi was elected or Santa Claus was elected, there would still be huge problems in this relationship.

How much easier is it for her to tackle these problems?

Stephen, just briefly with this now supermajority.

Well, she doesn't have resistance and this is good and bad.

The coalition parties, partners such as Komeito put a softer tone on foreign policy and domestic policy.

She could be too enthusiastic about the super majority and not understanding that you still need to create consensus with other parties to push forward on foreign policy and domestic policy.

Overreach or just the right amount of balance with coalition parties.

Professor at the International Christian University.