LDP’s Landslide Victory: Takaichi Should Leverage Stable Base to Solve Issues / Aim to Rebuild Peace and Order |
Editorial
14:00 JST, February 9, 2026
What exactly was going on with the Liberal Democratic Party for the past year and several months, when it suffered declining strength? The party’s historic landslide victory in the House of Representatives election makes one wonder.
The LDP achieved the overwhelming victory in the 51st general election of the lower house. Far exceeding the goal of securing a combined majority with coalition partner Japan Innovation Party, the LDP alone won two-thirds of the seats.
The ruling parties are still a minority in the House of Councillors, but Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has succeeded in building a stable base in the lower house.
After being reduced to a minority ruling party as the result of a crushing defeat in the previous 2024 general election, the LDP had become fixated solely on maintaining power, haphazardly accepting opposition demands, including those involving fiscal stimulus. Unable to present a vision LDP for the future, support for the LDP had steadily dwindled.
Amid this predicament, Takaichi assumed office as Japan’s first female prime minister. Her use of crisp rhetoric, like “Make the Japanese archipelago stronger and more prosperous,” to call for the continuation of her administration likely helped regain support lost from conservative and young voters.
The prime minister must now leverage this newly secured........