Japan PM Takaichi dissolves parliament, paving way for snap election

DEVELOPING STORY, Japan to hold election on February 8 after the country’s first woman premier, Sanae Takaichi, dissolves parliament.Published On 23 Jan 2026Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has dissolved parliament in advance of a snap election scheduled for February 8.The speaker of Japan’s parliament on Friday read out a letter, officially dissolving the lower house as lawmakers shouted the traditional rallying cry of “banzai”.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Trump says US still ‘watching Iran‘ as ‘massive’ fleet heads to Gulf regionlist 2 of 4Did the US give Greenland back to Denmark? Trump omits history at Davoslist 3 of 4US officers detain 5-year-old boy as Minnesota immigration raids continuelist 4 of 4Australian, Palestinian lawyers seek police probe of Israeli presidentend of listThe dissolution of the 465-member lower house now paves the way for a 12-day election campaign, which officially begins on Tuesday.Takaichi, the country’s first woman premier, had announced her intentions on Monday to call an election.Elected in October as Japan’s first female leader, Takaichi has been in office for only three months, but she has seen strong approval ratings of about 70 percent.She is hoping to capitalise on her personal popularity to help the governing party regain ground after major losses of public support in recent years.The governing coalition of Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) has only a slim majority in the powerful lower chamber.“It’s not clear if high public support for the Takaichi cabinet will actually lead to support of the LDP,” said Hidehiro Yamamoto, a politics professor at the University of Tsukuba.“What the public are concerned about is measures to address inflation,” he told the AFP news agency.Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said key election issues for the campaign will be to tackle rising prices for consumers as well as security issues amid rising tension with China.Tokyo and Beijing have been embroiled in a diplomatic dispute since Takaichi made remarks in November suggesting that Japan could become involved if China takes military action against Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own.