The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Liberal Democratic Party looked certain to secure a single-party majority in the 51st House of Representatives election on Sunday, according to exit polls jointly conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun, NHK and Nippon TV-affiliated stations.

The LDP appeared set to take the majority, which is 233 seats of the 465-seat chamber, garnering more than the 198 seats it held before the lower house was dissolved. The ruling coalition of the LDP and the Japan Innovation Party was poised to secure more than 300 seats.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who is also LDP president, had aimed to win a majority for the ruling coalition. With the election victory, Takaichi is expected to advance policies that she touted in the election campaign, such as measures for "responsible and proactive public finances," claiming that her administration has obtained a public mandate. The ruling coalition is also likely to strengthen its control over the operation of the Diet.

LDP Secretary General Shunichi Suzuki expressed the party's intention on Sunday night to advance discussions on reducing the consumption tax on food and beverages for a limited period of two years, as pledged in its campaign promises.

Suzuki made the statement on a TV Tokyo program on the day.

Also, regarding reports of the LDP's projected landslide victory in the election, Suzuki analyzed the situation as follows. "I believe we received support due to expectations for the responsible proactive fiscal policy that Prime Minister Takaichi aims to pursue, as well as for strengthening defense and diplomatic capabilities."

Noda hits at resignation

Yoshihiko Noda, coleader of the Centrist Reform Alliance, was asked about stepping down. "I have made up my mind, but I will talk to other party executives as the results are not all out yet," he said.

This was the first lower house election after Komeito left the ruling coalition with the LDP in October last year and then the JIP joined hands with the LDP. This was also the first national election for Takaichi since taking office. Takaichi made whether the public would endorse her as the prime minister a key issue in the election.

In the opposition camp, the CRA - a new party formed by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito and now the largest opposition party - seemed likely to fall significantly short of the 167 seats its members held before the lower house was dissolved.

Sanseito and Team Mirai were projected to make gains. Sanseito held two lower house seats before the chamber's dissolution. Mirai was expected to win its first seats in the lower house.

Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya said that support for the party in Sunday's election was not likely to surpass that in last year's House of Councillors election.

"I gave the previous [national] election a score of about 120 points, but compared to that, I think our score this time is around 75 points," Kamiya said Sunday night in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo.

Team Mirai's leader Takahiro Anno credited his party's stance on the consumption tax for its projected strong showing in the election.

"On the key issue of consumption tax cuts, we took a different stance from other parties," Anno said at a press conference in Tokyo on Sunday night. "I believe we may have become the only option for voters [who are against the tax cuts]."

Other parties called for reducing the consumption tax in their campaigns, but Mirai did not include such tax cuts in its platform.

The lower house election was held about one year and three months after the previous election, with a total of 465 seats contested: 289 in single-seat constituencies and 176 in the proportional representation segment. The period from the lower house's dissolution to the voting and counting was 16 days, the shortest since the end of World War II.

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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.

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February 08, 2026 18:42 ET (23:42 GMT)

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