Japan's prime minister wins landslide election victory
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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Paul Moss, and at 4.30 GMT on February 9th, these are our main stories. Japan's prime minister has won a decisive parliamentary majority, increasing the chance she'll now change the country's constitution.
What led to Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's decisive election victory?
The pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. And the Seattle Seahawks win the US Super Bowl, but Donald Trump has called Bad Bunny's halftime performance an affront to the nation. Also in this podcast... Brendan Harrison Tarrant, you are separately in charges of 1 to 15 of the Crown Chargeless, charged that on the 15th day of March 2019 at Christchurch, you did murder. Yes, guilty. New Zealand's mass killer pleaded guilty, but now he wants to retract his guilty plea. When Senai Takeichi called a snap election in Japan, the move was widely described as a gamble. After all, she was already the country's prime minister. She was just hoping to increase her party's showing in the country's parliament.
And if that didn't work out, Ms Takeichi had said she would resign as leader of the Liberal Democrat Party. Well, if it was a gamble, then it looks like the Prime Minister has pretty much hit the jackpot, certainly as much as politicians ever do. Results so far suggest she's won her party a majority, giving cautious optimism to her many supporters. I think Sanae Takeichi is very different from other politicians. I have high hopes. That's why I voted for her. With President Trump back in office... There are many challenges. National defence is one. But if we spend money on that, how does it help with people's livelihoods? Our reporter Will Leonardo has been following the election campaign from Tokyo and says the result there has been considered astounding.
It's the Liberal Democratic Party's best showing since the Second World War. And remember, they've governed more or less nonstop since then. It's won 316 seats. That's two thirds majority on its own. Prime Minister Sanae Takeuchi, she's currently in a coalition with a populist party centered on Osaka called the Japan Innovation Party. They won another 36. She says that tie up will remain as it remains valuable to her in the upper house. The recently cobbled together centrist opposition coalition lost more than two thirds of seats. And consider this. Japan operates a hybrid voting system. It's got constituencies and proportional lists. Candidates are often put up for both. Now, the LDP won so many seats in the constituency races that
that in several parts of Japan it simply ran out of candidates in the proportional list and their votes were split among other parties. Japanese media are reporting that it could have won 14 more seats. Word on turnout, Jiji, which is a reputable news agency here, estimates it to be around 55%. That's slightly higher than last time in 2024, which was held in much better weather conditions. Now, that size of that majority means that Ms. Takaichi can now do what she said and change the country's constitution. What's that actually going to mean in practice? Yes, the two-thirds is a magic number to begin the process, although she needs two-thirds in both houses. Ms Takaichi, just like her mentor, the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, wants to tweak Japan's pacifist constitution, which was drafted by the US after the war.
At the moment, it doesn't explicitly recognise the self-defence forces, so this could allow Japan to take a more active military role in Asia. And remember, she's upping defence spending already. It's a big part of her promise to the country during the selection to defend it, to defend borders more. But this is likely to anger China even more than she already has in a dispute over Taiwan. And, of course, it's probably going to cause alarm in other Asian nations as well, not least South Korea, that she's kind of become quite close with, you know, their concerns over Japanese return to militarism.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:07
2
What led to Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's decisive election victory?
1:07–20:45
3
What changes to Japan's constitution does Takaichi plan to pursue?
20:45–27:52
4
How did Thailand's recent election results differ from expectations?
27:52–30:36