Japan’s leader calls for snap election in bid to expand power

By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ

Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister, said Monday that she would dissolve parliament and call a snap election, in a bid to strengthen her power and revive the sagging fortunes of her party.

Takaichi, the first woman to lead the country, said she would dissolve the House of Representatives when it convenes for its regular session Friday and schedule an election on Feb. 8 — only about three months into her tenure. She said the move was necessary to make Japan “strong and prosperous.”

“I believe that the only option is for the people, as sovereign citizens, to decide whether or not Sanae Takaichi should be prime minister,” she said at a news conference in Tokyo.

The decision to call an election is the biggest bet of Takaichi’s tenure.

She risks losing critical seats, which could hinder her priorities and undermine her attempt to be a transformative, enduring figure. And if the Liberal Democratic Party — Japan’s main political group — suffers a major defeat, she could lose her job, though analysts said that scenario was unlikely.

But Takaichi, a hard-line conservative, could also help reinvigorate the LDP and gain the seats in parliament it needs to comfortably push through her economic and security agenda.

“She wants to seize the momentum and strengthen her hand at home and on foreign policy,” said Mireya Solís, the director of the Center for Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “The risk is, she cannot move forward with her agenda and emerges a much weaker figure.”

The decision to call a snap election comes as Japan grapples with a host of challenges. China has in recent months imposed a series of economic reprisals on Japan, aiming to punish Takaichi for her expression of support for Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that Beijing claims as its territory.

Japan is also dealing with uncertainty from the United States under President Donald Trump. Takaichi has sought to woo Trump in an effort to get his administration to maintain its military and economic support for Japan.

By calling an election, Takaichi is betting that she can help revitalize the LDP, the broad-tent conservative group that has governed Japan for most of the past 70 years. Her party has experienced bruising defeats in recent elections, leaving it in the unusual position of being a minority in both houses of the parliament, known as the Diet.