Japan’s Ruling Party Wins Landslide in Snap Election Backed by Trump

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party won 316 of the 465 seats in the lower house of parliament in Sunday’s snap election, according to NHK’s count as reported by Al Jazeera and the Globe and Mail. NBC News said NHK’s official count showed Takaichi had surpassed the 310 seats needed for a two-thirds supermajority.

Takaichi took office in October, NBC News and the Globe and Mail reported, and called the vote after about three months in office, according to the Globe and Mail and Al Jazeera. The LDP has been dogged by scandals, NBC reported, and Al Jazeera described them as funding and religious scandals. Before the vote, polls suggested the LDP and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, could win more than 300 of the 465 seats, Al Jazeera and NBC reported, and Takaichi had said she would step down if the coalition lost its majority.

The opposition was seen as too fragmented to mount a real challenge. Al Jazeera reported that it was split between a new centrist alliance and a rising far right, and the Globe and Mail reported that the new alliance of Komeito and the Constitutional Democratic Party was projected to fall to about half of its combined pre-election total of 167 seats.

Rising living costs weighed on voters. NBC News described a cost-of-living crisis worsened by a weakening yen, and Al Jazeera said rising living costs were voters’ main concern. Voters headed to the polls in freezing winter weather, NBC reported, and Al Jazeera said heavy snow was forecast in parts of the country.

The result matters to Washington. President Trump endorsed Takaichi days before the vote, and she is scheduled to visit the White House on March 19, according to Al Jazeera and NBC News.

China is also a factor. Weeks after taking office, Takaichi said a Chinese attack on Taiwan could prompt a Japanese military response, a remark that set off a dispute with Beijing, according to Al Jazeera and NBC News.