Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will dissolve parliament on Friday, paving the way for an election next month that she hopes will give her a stronger mandate to govern.
It was an “extremely weighty decision” that would “determine Japan’s course together with the people”, Takaichi told a news conference. She also told voters to entrust her with running Japan.
The vote to elect the 465 members of the House of Representatives, the lower and more powerful house in Japan, will take place on 8 February.
Takaichi and her cabinet have enjoyed high public support since taking office last October.
Her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) currently has 199 seats – including three held by its independent partners – in the House of Representatives, the most out of any party.
The LDP’s coalition with the Japan Innovation party has just enough seats for a majority in the lower house.
A protege of former conservative PM Shinzo Abe and self-professed admirer of Margaret Thatcher, Takaichi, Japan’s first female leader, is known as the country’s “Iron Lady”.
In December, her cabinet approved a record defence budget of nine trillion yen ($57bn; £43bn). This comes amid growing concern over China, with Tokyo describing its neighbour’s military activities in the region as its “greatest strategic challenge”.
Takaichi has found herself the target of China’s ire since last November, when she made comments suggesting that Japan could respond with its own self-defence force if China attacked Taiwan.
The diplomatic spat that ensued has sent bilateral ties plunging to their lowest point in more than a decade.
Meanwhile, Takaichi has pursued closer ties with the US. During US President Donald Trump’s visit to Japan last October, the two leaders heaped praise on each other and signed a deal on rare earths. They also signed a document heralding a new “golden age” of US-Japan relations.
On domestic policy, Takaichi is an advocate for heavy government-led spending to drive economic growth – a revival of the sort of stimulus measures that Japan saw under “Abenomics”.
As of December, Takaichi and her administration have charted approval ratings of 60-80% in major polls.
But her snap election gamble comes with its own set of risks.
The LDP’s leadership has been on shaky ground, and Takaichi is the country’s fourth PM in five years. Her predecessors’ terms were cut short by falling public support and scandals.
Her immediate predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, also announced a snap election shortly after taking office – leading to one of the LDP’s worst ever results and costing the party its majority in the House of Representatives.
Another challenge looms in the form of a new, consolidated opposition. Japan’s largest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, formed a new centrist party with the Komeito party, the LDP’s former coalition partner, last week.
The new party, the Centrist Reform Alliance, will challenge the LDP in the upcoming election.
