Takaichi election victory welcomed by the EU

Japan has given Takaichi a landslide win - but can she bring back the economy? 9 February 2026 Share Save Add as preferred on Google Suranjana Tewari Asia Business Correspondent Getty Images Japan's prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, rolled the dice on a snap election - and it paid off. She and her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have the kind of decisive majority - 316 out of 465 seats - that few leaders have enjoyed recently. Rather, Japan has had a revolving door of prime ministers. Now the question is what Takaichi does with it. Can she deliver what has eluded the Japanese economy for decades: faster growth? Japan has a long list of problems: sluggish growth, public debt that is the largest in the world, and a working population that is both ageing and shrinking. Takaichi, some observers believe, has the chance to change this, reshaping how Japan runs what is the world's fourth-largest...