TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will dissolve parliament on Friday (Jan 23) ahead of a snap election on Feb 8, counting on her Cabinet’s high poll numbers to steer her otherwise unpopular ruling party to victory.
The country’s first woman leader announced on Monday that she planned to dissolve the lower house, seeking public backing for measures to shield households from rising living costs and increase spending on defence.
The ruling coalition of Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) has only a slim majority in the powerful lower chamber.
Takaichi is hoping widespread support for her Cabinet will help deliver her a stronger mandate even though the LDP itself is battling low approval ratings and a string of scandals.
“It’s not clear if high public support for the Takaichi Cabinet will actually lead to support of the LDP,” Hidehiro Yamamoto, politics professor at the University of Tsukuba, told AFP.
“What the public are concerned about is measures to address inflation,” he said.
On Friday, closely watched government data showed the country’s inflation rate slowed in December, largely thanks to government subsidies for electricity and gas.
The 2.4 per cent year-on-year rise in consumer prices, which excludes volatile fresh food, compared to 3 per cent in November – a notable slowdown, although higher than the central bank’s 2 per cent target.
Public discontent over rising prices largely contributed to the downfall of Shigeru Ishiba, whom Takaichi succeeded in October.
While Japan was long haunted by deflation, it has more recently faced a surge in living costs and a chronically weak yen that has made imports more expensive.
Rice has become a symbol: its price more than doubled in mid-2025 compared to a year earlier, before easing in recent months.
The price of the grain rose more than 34 per cent in December compared to last year, official data showed Friday.
Vowing to address the issue and shore up the world’s fourth-largest economy, Takaichi’s cabinet approved a record 122.3-trillion-yen (US$770 billion) budget for the fiscal year from April 2026.
But rivals say dissolving the lower house risks delaying its passage through parliament, with Jun Azumi of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) saying it would “sacrifice livelihoods”.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/japan-pm-sanae-takaichi-set-dissolve-parliament-snap-election-feb-8-5877816
