Overview
- Voters go to the polls on February 8 after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi dissolved the lower house and cast the contest as a personal confidence test.
- Recent polling shows the LDP likely to regain an outright majority, with its partner JIP potentially pushing the bloc above 300 of 465 seats and near a two‑thirds threshold, as Takaichi’s approval hovers around 70 percent.
- The campaign has centered on hardline migration themes, with the LDP pledging zero tolerance for rule‑breaking migrants and limits on foreign property purchases, while Ishin seeks an immigration cap and Sanseito proposes restricting voting rights for children of foreigners.
- Economic strains—decades of stagnant wages, a weak yen, imported inflation, and persistent labor shortages—have fueled nativist rhetoric even as businesses rely more on foreign workers.
- Tensions with China escalated after Takaichi’s remarks about a Taiwan conflict, prompting diplomatic and symbolic reprisals from Beijing, while U.S. President Donald Trump publicly endorsed her and a March 19 visit to Washington is planned.