TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won 315 seats in weekend snap elections, giving it a two-thirds majority, official results showed Tuesday.
The outcome is the LDP’s best in its history and allows Japan’s first woman prime minister to stamp her mark on the country of 123 million people over the next four years.
The LDP’s coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), won 36 seats, giving the ruling bloc 351 lawmakers in the 465-member lower house, the internal affairs ministry data showed.
In the last parliament the LDP had only 198 seats while the JIP had 34.
The election also saw the anti-immigration Sanseito party increase its tally to 15 seats from two, the results showed.
The new Centrist Reform Alliance of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party and the LDP’s previous partner Komeito suffered a disaster, with their tally collapsing to 49 from 167.