Special to WorldTribune.com

By John J. Metzler, March 22, 2026

A massive political tsunami swept across the Japanese islands as recent national elections scored a resounding electoral win for the incumbent political party and its maverick leader Sanae Takaichi.

Though the outcome was assumed, her stunning triumph was not expected.

The snap parliamentary elections reflected a reaffirmation of the political acumen and voter charm of Japan’s first female Prime Minister and a staunch conservative at that. Ms. Takaichi’s government only assumed power in October of last year and since then she’s shaken up the gray and establishment democracy that is modern Japan.

Ms. Takaichi (64) hails from the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, (LDP) a staid political institution which has ruled Japan basically since 1955. Though the LDP has long remained a big tent consensus party, the party has long been unofficially viewed as the “conservative democratic party of the status-quo.” That’s why it’s important that her tax-cutting and economic revival mandate was strongly backed by younger voters too.

The elections for the 465 seat Parliament, aka the Diet, needed 233 seats for a majority; LDP won 316 (up from 198 in the last election) and was joined by coalition partner Japan Innovation Party adding another 36. This earned the ruling bloc 352 seats, a whopping supermajority in the Diet. Seven opposition parties of the left gained only 113 seats.

A Japan Times editorial stated, “The LDP’s big win is attributable to her energy, her image and her vision.” There’s no question about that.

Despite the close U.S. defense and commercial ties with Japan, the New York Times reported her stunning victory on page 7, perhaps a sign of the newspaper’s acute global myopia.

From a foreign viewpoint, political stability in Tokyo offers a net positive given the geopolitical rumblings in the region ranging from Beijing to Pyongyang.

China

China’s crude but predictable pressure on Prime Minister Takaichi after her tough and unprecedented remarks that Japan could intervene military in a hypothetical Taiwan Straits crisis rattled East Asian perceptions.

Takaichi now holds the political cards and capital to be quite clear with China that Japan’s national interests are being recalibrated in Tokyo’s favor not by reacting and responding to Beijing’s dictate and military threats to a democratic Taiwan.

Korean Peninsula

Then there’s the enduring threat North Korea poses to the region, especially to Japan, from its ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. The quaintly titled Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) holds a near mythic hatred of Japan and now holds the military capacity to raise the specter. Pyongyang’s dynastic leader Kim-Jong-Un has nodded to a eventual succession plan to elevate his 14-year-old daughter Ju-Ae.

The Japan/South Korean leaders plan to strengthen bilateral relations, which have always been complex given history, and to improve political and military coordination concerning communist North Korea, a worry in both Tokyo and Seoul. Closer Japanese ties with South Korea are overdue for many reasons, least of all to unite regional democracies against China and North Korea. Prime Minister Takaichi will visit South Korea in March as well to meet with South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung.

United States

Most importantly, Sanae Takaichi’s election signals a significant boost for yet closer ties with the United States in terms of defense and trade, expanding on the 1952 U. S./Japan Mutual Security Treaty which established the foundation of post-WWII friendship.

Moreover, LDP is already no longer shy about exceeding defense spending beyond the long-taboo one percent of GDP which was the proverbial third rail for Japanese governments to spend.

Takaichi stated that she would move forward with Japan’s plans to raise annual military spending to 2% of GDP, a watershed moment given the country reluctance over past decades, and Article 9 of the post-war Constitution which constrains Tokyo’s military power.

There are echoes of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in all this. Prime Minister Abe (assassinated in 2022) was an unapologetic nationalist and keen supporter of closer American ties.

The Trump Administration is poised to enhance cooperation with the Asian ally in security and economic matters. President Donald Trump expects to meet Takaichi for a Summit slated for March 19 in Washington.

But beyond the military equation, there’s also the commercial angle to the relationship.

Japan/U.S. commerce remains an important bedrock in the relationship. Currently trade two- way trade in 2024 stood at $227 billion; yet the trade deficit of $69 billion favored Japan. Currently the Trump Administration has levied a 15 percent tariff on Japan products.

Significantly, the Japanese islands provide a linchpin of American security architecture in East Asia. The new relationship in Tokyo enhances regional security.

John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of Divided Dynamism the Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China (2014). [See pre-2011 Archives]

  Japan election shifts geopolitical tectonic plates; NY Times buries news on page 7