Japan is holding early parliamentary elections today, called by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in an attempt to increase her majority in the lower house of parliament, world agencies reported. Polling stations have already opened. Election day will last until 8 p.m. local time (11 a.m. GMT), and the first results are expected almost immediately.
During an election rally yesterday in front of thousands of supporters in Tokyo, Takaichi promised to make Japan more prosperous and safer. She also pledged to achieve economic growth, and with regard to immigration, she recalled that the criteria have already been tightened so that terrorists and industrial spies do not come to Japan.
On January 19, Takaichi announced that she was dissolving the lower house of parliament and organized a historically short election campaign of only 16 days. She is counting on the high support for her to boost the performance of her Liberal Democratic Party (Japan's nationalist right), which she led in October. Until now, the ruling party and coalition of which she is a member have had a slim majority.
Takaichi's government enjoys a 70 percent approval rating, which is much higher than previous governments, although there has been a slight decline recently. Takaichi is very popular among young Japanese people, and she is even a fashion icon and social phenomenon for them.
According to polls, Takaichi's party will easily exceed the 233 seats in the lower house of parliament it needs for a majority. The ruling coalition, made up of the prime minister's party and the Japanese Restoration Party, also known as “Ishin“ could even win more than 300 seats out of 465 in the lower house.
The new Centrist Reform Alliance, which brings together the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party and Takaichi's former coalition partner Komeito, could lose half of its current 167 seats in the lower house, polls also show.
Beyond security and immigration concerns during the election campaign, another key issue was Japan's inflation, which has remained above 2 percent for nearly three years. Takaichi is planning a $135 billion economic stimulus package that has worried investors. Sanae Takaichi, Japan's fifth prime minister in five years, has pledged to exempt food from an 8 percent consumption tax to cushion the impact of inflation on households.
Takaichi also has the support of Donald Trump and is scheduled to visit the White House on March 19.
Since taking office, the prime minister has raised tensions with China by suggesting that Tokyo could intervene if Taiwan were attacked.
Sanae Takaichi, who turns 65 in March, has had a long political career. She entered politics in the early 1990s. Over the decades that followed, she has served as not only a lawmaker but also a minister in several cabinets headed by different prime ministers. Her first ministerial appointment was as a vice minister in Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. In Shinzo Abe's government, she was Minister of State for Okinawa and the Northern Territories, Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, Minister of State for Innovation, Minister of State for Youth and Gender Equality, and Minister of State for Food Safety. She then became Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, and later served as Minister of State for Economic Security in Fumio Kishida's government. In the period 2021-2024, she ran twice for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats in Japan, but was defeated by Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba, who subsequently became Prime Ministers of Japan.
Takaichi also gained fame with the revelation that she only sleeps two to three hours a day and that she starts working at night. She also earned a reputation as a brave woman, moving into a government residence rumored to be haunted.
In addition, Takaichi's fame as the Iron Lady and a man's girl is also due to the fact that, in addition to playing the piano, she played drums as a young woman, that she is a fan of rock and heavy metal, powerful motorcycles, football and baseball, that she likes to drive alone, that she is also a fan of horse racing, that she practices judo, karate and diving. Takaichi is also a fan of Japanese video games and Japanese comics - manga. She is also a fan of South Korean K-pop and recently, during the visit of South Korean President Lee Jae-myeon to Tokyo, he and the Japanese Prime Minister surprised journalists with an impromptu drum performance of hits by South Korean K-pop groups.
At the end of last year, the American publication “Forbes“ placed Takaichi in third place on its list of the 100 most influential women on the planet, after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Central Bank Governor Christine Lagarde. Fourth in the ranking was Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whom Takaichi met in Tokyo earlier this year.
Sanae Takaichi is also a great admirer of the British Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher.
The Thais are voting today in early parliamentary elections, called after a period of instability marked by the decline of the political king Shinawatra, world agencies reported.
According to analysts, the opposition in the country seems to be the favorite for the elections, but it is unlikely that it will win an absolute majority in parliament, which portends post-election negotiations to form a ruling coalition.
But despite being at the head of the The polls suggest the reformist People's Party could even be prevented from taking power by a possible coalition between the conservative Bhumjaithai Party and the populist Pheu Thai Party, which are expected to come in second and third.
This means that Bhumjaithai's leader, who is also Thailand's current prime minister, could retain the post he took over in September after a turbulent political period.
The election is being held against a backdrop of sluggish economic growth. Thailand has also failed to win back tourists lost during the pandemic. By contrast, neighboring Vietnam is seeing a rise in both growth and tourist interest.
The next government will also have to deal with the cross-border conflict with neighboring Cambodia, which led to bloody clashes twice last year.
About 53 million voters are eligible to vote.
In a fragmented political landscape, the result of the "Pheu Thai" party is emerging as key. This is the formation of the dominant figure in Thai politics since the turn of the century - Thaksin Shinawatra. It hopes to limit its decline and establish itself as an indispensable partner in any possible coalition.
For the People's Party, the emerging scenario of a conservative alliance between the remaining second and third-place parties will be something familiar. In 2023, its predecessor - the "Move On" movement - surprised everyone by winning the parliamentary elections. But his candidate for prime minister was removed from the post of prime minister, and the party was subsequently dissolved under a harsh law against the crime of insulting the monarchy.
The Pheu Thai party then formed a coalition with the Bhumjaithai party and produced two prime ministers from its ranks. First, it was Phaetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, but she was eventually removed by the Constitutional Court. She was then replaced by the Bhumjaithai leader Anutin, who became the third prime minister in the past two years.
At 59, Anutin is a wealthy heir to a family that made a fortune in the construction sector. He has managed to maneuver between shifting alliances and accumulate ministerial posts over the past two decades, eventually becoming the head of government.
Since the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, Thailand has experienced about a dozen military coups, bloody protests, and regular dissolutions of parties and removals of prime ministers by the Constitutional Court.
The constitution, inherited from the last coup in 2014, followed by five years of military rule, grants significant power to institutions whose leaders are appointed by senators, who are themselves not elected by universal suffrage.
A referendum will also be held in Thailand today, which should allow voters to vote in principle on constitutional reform, but without proposing specific measures.
North Korea is convening the ninth congress of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea at the end of this month in Pyongyang, world agencies reported, citing the North Korean news agency KCTA.
The exact date of the Congress has not been announced at this stage, nor has its agenda been announced.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has recently visited a number of military and economic sites, including a cruise missile launch site, to advertise the achievements of national policy.
The Congress is held once every five years in North Korea and during it the leading political goals for the country are outlined.