Japan’s Prime Minister to dissolve parliament for snap election

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (centre right) is to call a snap election. Photo / Yuichi Yamazaki, AFP

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi intends to dissolve the lower house for a snap election soon after a parliamentary session begins next week, her ruling party and a coalition partner have said.

Takaichi was appointed Japan’s first woman Prime Minister in October and her Cabinet is enjoying an approval rating of around 70%.

But her ruling bloc only has a slim majority in the powerful lower house of Parliament, hindering its ability to push through her ambitious policy agenda.

“I was notified by Prime Minister Takaichi that she will dissolve” the lower house “at an early stage of the ordinary parliamentary session”, Hirofumi Yoshimura, one of the leaders of the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), told reporters.

Yoshimura added that Takaichi told him she planned to hold a news conference next week to explain more about her decision.

The Tokyo stock market closed 1.5% higher and the yen slumped to its lowest value since mid-2024 on media reports that the election could take place as soon as February 8.

The Prime Minister also conveyed her intention to dissolve the chamber to Shunichi Suzuki, secretary-general of her ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), he said.

Suzuki told reporters in Tokyo that the election would in part be about seeking a public mandate on the current LDP-JIP partnership, which materialised only recently after the ruling party’s former partner exited the coalition.

The junior Komeito party ended its 26-year relationship with the LDP last year, citing the LDP’s failure to tighten party funding rules following a damaging slush fund scandal.

It was also unnerved by Takaichi’s previous harsh rhetoric on China and her regular visits to a Tokyo shrine that honours Japan’s war dead, including war criminals.

Budget bill

If Takaichi dissolves the lower house on January 23, which is the start of a regular Parliament session, the most likely election date would be February 8, various media reported.

By keeping short the period between Parliament dissolution and a general election, Takaichi hopes to curb the election’s impact on parliamentary debate over the Budget Bill for the upcoming fiscal year, the Yomiuri newspaper said.

Takaichi’s Cabinet approved a record ¥122.3 trillion ($1.3t) budget for the fiscal year from April 2026, and she has vowed to get parliamentary approval as soon as possible to address inflation and shore up the world’s fourth-largest economy.

Takaichi became Japan’s fifth premier in as many years when she was elected, initially as the head of a minority government.

Her LDP and the JIP regained their lower-house majority in November after three lawmakers joined the LDP.

The ruling bloc remains a minority in the upper house.

Takaichi reportedly hopes a bigger majority will help her implement her agenda of more “proactive” fiscal spending, and may also help her break the deadlock in a spat with China.

Ties have deteriorated since Takaichi suggested in November that Japan could intervene militarily if China ever launched an attack on Taiwan, the self-ruled island it claims.

- Agence France-Presse