By David Asta Alares
Tokyo, Feb 7 (EFE).— Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi enters Sunday’s snap general election buoyed by strong personal popularity and on track, according to polls, to significantly expand the ruling bloc’s slim majority in the lower house of parliament.
The conservative leader enjoys approval ratings above 60 percent and strong support among younger voters, according to surveys such as one published Thursday by the Mainichi Shimbun.
Takaichi has defended an expansionary fiscal policy aimed at tackling persistent inflation and reversing years of wage stagnation.
“For too long, excessive austerity has been applied, cutting spending at all costs,” she said Friday at a campaign rally in Kagoshima Prefecture.
“That approach, combined with insufficient investment in the future, explains the weak performance of the Japanese economy.”
A self-declared admirer of Margaret Thatcher, a former heavy-metal drummer during her university years and once a television news presenter, Takaichi joined the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 1996.
In October, she made history by becoming the first woman to lead both the party and the country.
Just three months later, she is seeking to convert a popularity well above that of her party into parliamentary seats.
The LDP, in power almost uninterruptedly since 1955, lost its majority in the upper house after a series of electoral setbacks that culminated in the resignation of the then prime minister Shigeru Ishiba.
According to the latest Mainichi projections, the LDP could secure an outright majority on its own, potentially surpassing 300 of the 465 seats in the lower house.
Together with its ally, the Japan Innovation Party (Ishin), the ruling camp could reach the two-thirds threshold needed to push through constitutional reforms.
Centrist and populist challenges Takaichi’s main electoral challenge comes from the newly formed Centrist Reformist Alliance, created through the merger of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) and Komeito.
The latter had been an LDP ally for nearly three decades but broke with the ruling party following Takaichi’s election as leader.
However, polls suggest limited momentum for the new bloc.
The Mainichi survey forecasts stagnation for Komeito and a sharp decline for the CDP.
“We are at a critical moment,” CDP leader Yoshihiko Noda said on Friday, while insisting the party remains in the race.
Attention is also focused on the performance of the populist Sanseito party.
Strongly anti-immigration, Sanseito is expected to consolidate gains made last year in upper house elections, where it secured 15 seats.
Immigration has emerged as a central theme of the shortest election campaign since World War II, alongside economic growth and the rising cost of living.
“(The then) prime minister Shinzo Abe expanded the admission of foreign workers, and that number has grown to more than one million,” Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya said at the start of the campaign. “I don’t think that was the right approach.”
Asked about the issue on Thursday, Takaichi said the LDP “does not promote immigration policies” and pledged “strict measures against illegal activities and violations of rules by foreigners.”
Her government proposed a package of measures two weeks ago to tighten immigration regulations, including stricter requirements for obtaining Japanese nationality.
Market jitters and China tensions Since Takaichi took office in October, Japan has faced continued pressure on the yen and a sharp rise in government bond yields to multi-decade highs, fueling concerns over the fiscal health of the world’s most indebted major economy.
The elections also follow months of heightened tensions between Tokyo and Beijing.
In November, Takaichi said Japan’s Self-Defense Forces could intervene in the event of a Chinese military attack on Taiwan, triggering strong protests from Beijing and subsequent diplomatic and economic retaliation. EFE
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