Takaichi Wins Japan's First Two-Thirds Supermajority of the Postwar Era

Japan's political map has just been redrawn. On 8 February 2026, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi led the Liberal Democratic Party to a historic landslide, winning at least 316 of the 465 seats in the House of Representatives. The result is the largest single-party haul in Japanese postwar electoral history — and a two-thirds supermajority that gives the government the legislative leverage to pursue significant constitutional and policy change.

How Takaichi got there

The path to the supermajority began with a series of LDP setbacks. In October 2024, the LDP lost its majority in the House of Representatives under Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru. In July 2025, the party fell into the minority in the House of Councillors election, becoming part of the first purely minority government in Japanese parliamentary history. On 7 September 2025, Ishiba announced his resignation as LDP president, citing responsibility for the losses.

The 5 October 2025 LDP leadership election made Takaichi the party's first female president. She became Prime Minister on 21 October 2025 and called early general elections within months — a high-risk strategy that paid off spectacularly.

What the supermajority enables

A two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives matters in three particular contexts. First, it allows the LDP to override a House of Councillors veto on any bill, which addresses the procedural difficulty of operating with a fragmented Upper House. Second, it provides the political ballast for constitutional reform — Article 9 (the war-renunciation clause) has been a longstanding target of LDP conservatives, though formal amendment requires both a two-thirds Diet majority and a national referendum. Third, it gives the government room to pursue politically difficult reforms — pension restructuring, immigration system reform, defence-spending acceleration — without the parliamentary friction that has defined recent Japanese politics.

Takaichi's posture

Takaichi is the most conservative LDP leader in years and has signalled a more assertive Japan on defence, history and foreign policy. She is closely aligned with the security-hawkish wing of the party associated with the late Shinzo Abe, whose policy positions she has publicly continued to champion.

Her early premiership has emphasised three priorities: continued defence-spending acceleration, immigration reform (a politically difficult issue she has framed in terms of skilled-worker channels rather than asylum), and constitutional engagement. Each has its own political resistance even within the LDP.

The international read

For Japan's allies, Takaichi's victory provides predictability after the political volatility of the Ishiba and pre-Ishiba periods. The US-Japan alliance is a fixed point of her foreign policy, even as Trump's broader posture has unsettled allies elsewhere. China policy has been firm but disciplined; Korea relations have continued the modest improvement begun under previous administrations.

What to watch

Three files. First, constitutional reform — whether Takaichi tries to use the supermajority for Article 9 amendment. Second, the Bank of Japan's monetary normalisation, which is now in a new political environment with explicit government support for stronger growth. Third, US-Japan trade — given Trump's tariff escalations, the alliance economic file is more contested than at any point in recent decades.