{"id":114627,"date":"2026-02-09T08:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T08:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114627"},"modified":"2026-02-09T08:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T08:49:09","slug":"japanese-stocks-surge-as-takaichi-secures-historic-election-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114627","title":{"rendered":"Japanese stocks surge as Takaichi secures historic election victory"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Japanese stocks surged to a record high on Monday, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi\u2019s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) basked in a historic election victory.<\/p>\n

The LDP secured 316 out of 465 seats in Sunday\u2019s election, the first time a single party has won a two-thirds lower house majority since Japan\u2019s parliament was established in its current form in 1947.<\/p>\n

The Japan Innovation Party, the LDP\u2019s coalition partner, won in 36 more constituencies, taking their combined total to 352 seats.<\/p>\n

The resounding mandate is a gamble that paid off for Takaichi, who now faces the challenge of reviving Japan\u2019s moribund economy and tackling cost-of-living woes.<\/p>\n

The Nikkei 225 index rallied by more than 5% in early trade on Monday, briefly crossing the 57,000 marks for the first time. It then gave up some gains but still closed up 3.9% at a record high of 56,363.94.<\/p>\n

The LDP\u2019s decisive win will help Takaichi advance her pro-business policies without having to negotiate extensively with opposition parties.<\/p>\n

Takaichi told reporters on Sunday that she would pursue a \u201cresponsible yet aggressive\u201d fiscal policy and would not reshuffle the Cabinet, which was formed less than four months ago.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s first female prime minister called the snap election last month, just a few months after taking office in October. Her success is in marked contrast to her two predecessors, under whom the party lost its parliamentary majority, battled corruption scandals and struggled to curb rising costs.<\/p>\n

Markets commentators say Takaichi\u2019s policies could boost the Japanese economy.<\/p>\n

The election outcome and upcoming moves like \u201cstimulus, tax tweaks, and deregulation\u201d will be \u201cadditional fuel for an existing bull trend\u201d, investment analyst Yuka Marosek told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Chris Scicluna, head of research at Daiwa Capital Markets Europe, said Japanese stock investors had \u201clong been believers in Takaichi\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re confident that Japanese firms will benefit from her pledge to end austerity, they love her promises of more investment to boost growth, [and] they like the fact she\u2019s identified several strategic sectors such as defence and AI to benefit from extra policy support,\u201d he told the BBC\u2019s Today programme.<\/p>\n

However, he added that investors in Japanese government bonds and the yen were \u201ca lot more agnostic if not downright sceptical\u201d about Takaichi\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n

\u201cJapanese government debt\u2019s extremely high and investors in bonds and the yen want to know how she intends to finance her plans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Historically low inflation in the country has made it very sensitive to the rising cost of living over recent years.<\/p>\n

At this election, voters at polling stations told the BBC that they were worried about the increasing costs of groceries and rent.<\/p>\n

The economy is also under pressure from the country\u2019s ageing population, which has seen a shrinking workforce and ballooning social care costs.<\/p>\n

Takaichi has pledged to cut taxes and boost the Japanese economy through more spending \u2013 though where that money will come from is another big concern, given Japan\u2019s high government debt. Critics warn this could deepen instability in Japan\u2019s already fragile economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bear an extremely heavy responsibility to focus on steadily delivering on the campaign pledges we have made,\u201d Takaichi said on Sunday as her party\u2019s victory became clear, Kyodo reported.<\/p>\n

The LDP had lost its parliamentary majority under Takaichi\u2019s predecessor Shigeru Ishiba. And Takaichi banked on her personal appeal to turn the LDP\u2019s lost fortunes around.<\/p>\n

She has consolidated support among the LDP\u2019s conservative base by reviving long-dormant goals like revision to Japan\u2019s pacifist constitution and emphasising traditional values.<\/p>\n

But she has also connected with younger voters in a way not seen before: her handbags and pink pens have become unlikely zeitgeist items.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump congratulated Takaichi on her victory, writing on Truth Social that it was an \u201cHonor\u201d to endorse her ahead of the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wonderful people of Japan, who voted with such enthusiasm, will always have my strong support,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Just one week after Takaichi took office in October last year, Tokyo rolled out the red carpet for Trump when he visited Japan. It was her diplomatic debut, and the optics were striking fists pumping as the US president praised her in front of thousands of US soldiers.<\/p>\n

Takaichi is due to travel to Washington in March for a second meeting with Trump.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Japanese stocks surged to a record high on Monday, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) basked in a historic election victory.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1910,3982,10,9,16569,8354],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","category-japan","category-politics","category-popular","category-takaichi","category-victory"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}