Recently, Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi announced an election for the lower house (aka House of Representatives) for February 8th, with campaigning starting today.
This has caused quite a bit of stir, as the timing is highly unusual, among other things. For one, priority is usually given towards deliberation of the budget for the 2026 fiscal year. The call for the election has meant that the 2026 budget gets delayed, though the LDP is compiling a provisional budget in the meantime.
The timing of calling the election is also rather convenient, as it means that Takaichi doesn't have to explain why she gave several members in her party key posts in her cabinet, despite being involved in financial corruption, instead of... you know, kicking them out for financial corruption. Publicly, the LDP claims that those involved have been punished, but to the common folk, they only got a slap on the wrist at best.
Observers believe that Takaichi called the election to capitalize on her current high approval ratings, suspecting that once parliamentary debates begin, her ratings will take a significant hit. The LDP has seemingly done nothing to address the increasing costs of living (with the price of rice still high, despite the previous PM's measures to address the issue). In addition, the sudden call for an election means that all political parties have very little to present in the way of policies.
The one major topic has been addressing the increasing cost of living, with parties all pitching the idea of either temporarily halting the 8 - 10 % consumption tax, or outright abolishing it - though no explanation has been given on how they will make up for all that lost tax revenue.
On another interesting front, a new political party has emerged - The Centrist Reform Alliance (中道改革連合, Chudo Kaikaku Rengo), or simply known as "Chudo". This party is made up of the combined Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, and Komeito. For those who don't know, Komeito was the former ruling coalition partner of the LDP for 26 years until they decided to break off last October, due to issues with Takaichi keeping scandal hit LDP members in her cabinet, and her apparent unwillingness to address any kind of campaign finance reform. As a result, this new party holds 172 seats in the lower house against the LDP's 199.
This article gives a very simplified take on each party's policies (which aren't many, given the sudden announcement), but at first glance, it seems that hating on foreigners is still trendy at the moment.
From what I have observed, there is a bit of grumbling that their workload has suddenly increased to be able to prepare for the election on time. As mentioned also, there is very little put forward in terms of policies aside from what is covered in the article above, with voters having to take leap of faith going with either the devil they know or the devil they don't know.
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