January 23, 2026 | 07:46 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi officially dissolved the parliament on Friday, January 23, 2026, to pave the way for a snap general election to be held on February 8. This move came just three months after Takaichi took office as the first female prime minister in Japan's history.
The dissolution of the lower house was announced after the Parliament's Speaker read the official letter in a plenary session. The moment was greeted with cheers of "banzai" from the members of the parliament. According to Al Jazeera, the dissolution of the 465-member lower house automatically initiated a 12-day campaign period starting next Tuesday.
Takaichi had previously announced her intention to hold the election earlier on Monday. She hoped to capitalize on the relatively high popularity of her cabinet to strengthen the ruling party's position.
Popularity Capital
Although the approval rating for Takaichi's cabinet is around 70 percent, the government coalition consisting of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) only holds a slim majority in the lower house. LDP itself is still overshadowed by low public support and a series of scandals.
"It’s not clear if high public support for the Takaichi cabinet will actually lead to support of the LDP," said Hidehiro Yamamoto, a political science professor at Tsukuba University. He added, "What the public are concerned about is measures to address inflation."
According to a survey cited by CNA, support for Takaichi's cabinet reached around 90 percent among voters under 30, based on the Sankei Shimbun and Fuji Television polls at the end of December.
Inflation, Rice, and Regional Tensions
According to NHK reports, the main issues of the election campaign include the surge in basic necessities prices and security policies amid increasing tensions with China. Tokyo-Beijing relations deteriorated in November after Takaichi stated that Japan could be involved if China took military steps against Taiwan. The statement triggered economic and diplomatic retaliatory measures from Beijing.
Government data released on Friday showed that Japan's inflation slowed to 2.4 percent annually in December, down from 3 percent in November, driven by electricity and gas subsidies. However, the figure still exceeds the central bank's 2 percent target. Rice also symbolizes the cost-of-living pressures, with prices surging more than double in mid-2025 and still rising more than 34 percent compared to last year.
Public dissatisfaction with the previous price hikes also led to the downfall of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who was replaced by Takaichi in October. Quoting Kyodo News, both the government and the opposition proposed eliminating the consumption tax on food to curb household inflation.
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