• On ties with China, Takaichi dubs Beijing’s move to impose export controls ‘economic coercion’

ISTANBUL

Japan's first female Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Monday announced that snap general elections will be held on Feb. 8 after she dissolves the parliament later this week.

Addressing a news conference in Tokyo, Takaichi said the parliament will be dissolved on Friday, when lawmakers meet for a scheduled session.

She was elected last October as the 104th prime minister of the country.

The elections were originally scheduled to be held no later than October 2028.

A party or coalition needs at least 233 seats in the 465-member lower house of Japan’s bicameral parliament to elect a prime minister.​​​​​​​

“Should I be the prime minister, I would like to ask this to people,” Takaichi said in response to a question, setting the stage for a fight with the united opposition.

She also proposed exempting food from the consumption tax for two years.

With election dates announced, the official campaign for the elections will begin on Jan. 27.

The last general elections for a four-year term of the lower house of the Japanese parliament were held in October 2024, when Takaichi’s Liberal democratic Party (LDP) lost majority.

Later, the LDP also lost majority in the parliament’s upper house last July.

Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister, is leading a minority Cabinet, with support from the Japan Innovation Party since the LDP elected her as president last October.

She focused on “political stability” to carry out reforms in the country, according to Kyodo News.

The snap elections are being held as Japan’s two opposition parties formed a new bloc, the Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA), against Takaichi’s LDP and its allies.

It has pledged to ease economic pressures and offer an alternative to “divisive” politics.

The CRA was formed by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the LDP’s former ally Komeito.

Takaichi also touched on tensions with China, calling Beijing’s move to impose export controls “economic coercion.”

China-Japan relations have deteriorated since November, when Takaichi said a Chinese attack on Taiwan could legally constitute a “survival-threatening situation,” potentially allowing Japan to exercise the right of collective self-defense.

The remarks prompted strong backlash from Beijing, which advised Chinese citizens against travel to Japan and reinstated a ban on Japanese seafood imports, as well as curbs on exports of items used for military purposes.