The Tokyo stock market closed 1.5% higher and the yen slumped to its lowest value since mid-2024 on media reports that the election could take place as soon as February 8.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister also conveyed her intention to dissolve the chamber to Shunichi Suzuki, secretary-general of her ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), he said.<\/p>\n
Suzuki told reporters in Tokyo that the election would in part be about seeking a public mandate on the current LDP-JIP partnership, which materialised only recently after the ruling party\u2019s former partner exited the coalition.<\/p>\n
The junior Komeito party ended its 26-year relationship with the LDP last year, citing the LDP\u2019s failure to tighten party funding rules following a damaging slush fund scandal.<\/p>\n
It was also unnerved by Takaichi\u2019s previous harsh rhetoric on China and her regular visits to a Tokyo shrine that honours Japan\u2019s war dead, including war criminals.<\/p>\n
Budget bill<\/p>\n
If Takaichi dissolves the lower house on January 23, which is the start of a regular Parliament session, the most likely election date would be February 8, various media reported.<\/p>\n
By keeping short the period between Parliament dissolution and a general election, Takaichi hopes to curb the election\u2019s impact on parliamentary debate over the Budget Bill for the upcoming fiscal year, the Yomiuri newspaper said.<\/p>\n
Takaichi\u2019s Cabinet approved a record \u00a5122.3 trillion ($1.3t) budget for the fiscal year from April 2026, and she has vowed to get parliamentary approval as soon as possible to address inflation and shore up the world\u2019s fourth-largest economy.<\/p>\n
Takaichi became Japan\u2019s fifth premier in as many years when she was elected, initially as the head of a minority government.<\/p>\n
Her LDP and the JIP regained their lower-house majority in November after three lawmakers joined the LDP.<\/p>\n
The ruling bloc remains a minority in the upper house.<\/p>\n
Takaichi reportedly hopes a bigger majority will help her implement her agenda of more \u201cproactive\u201d fiscal spending, and may also help her break the deadlock in a spat with China.<\/p>\n
Ties have deteriorated since Takaichi suggested in November that Japan could intervene militarily if China ever launched an attack on Taiwan, the self-ruled island it claims.<\/p>\n
– Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tokyo stock market closed 1.5% higher and the yen slumped to its lowest value since mid-2024 on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[67274,74,11154,138,7230,138330,5903,2082,305,10053,23593,16847,2513,6722,111,139,1536,69,24637,76331,5502,4762,415,29946,3048,138331,55917,5316,2249,61,686],"class_list":["post-233366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-takaichi","tag-after","tag-begins","tag-business","tag-coalition","tag-dissolve","tag-election","tag-for","tag-have","tag-house","tag-intends","tag-japans","tag-lower","tag-minister","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-parliament","tag-parliamentary","tag-partner","tag-party","tag-prime","tag-ruling","tag-said","tag-sanae","tag-session","tag-snap","tag-soon","tag-to","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}