Seminar “Elections in Japan: Will the Vector of the Political Development Change?”

On February 12, 2026, the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted a seminar on the results of the snap elections to the House of Representatives of the Japanese Diet, held on February 8, 2026. The participants of the seminar analyzed in detail the prerequisites, the course, and the results of the elections. The seminar participants identified several factors behind the Liberal Democrats' decisive victory, including Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's strong personal rating, which surpassed 70 % ahead of the election and was significantly boosted by the effective use of image-making techniques to enhance her appeal to voters; the gender factor associated with the first female prime minister of Japan; China's efforts to pressure Takaichi into retracting her parliamentary remarks on the Taiwan issue, which sparked a surge of patriotism in the country and united voters behind the national leader. Separately, the unsuccessful performance of the opposition was analyzed, in particular, the merger of the Constitutional Democratic Party and the Komeito, which was not supported by the coherence of the program of the new Centrist alliance, giving reason to liken it to an attempt to combine oil and water. The election campaign was unsuccessful for the new party, which was the main opponent of the LDP in the elections, during which the centrists tried to appeal to pacifist values that did not find a response among young people. The seminar participants came to the conclusion that the victory of the LDP, led by the leader of its hawkish wing, reflects a right-wing turn in Japanese politics, which correlates with general electoral trends in the world. In addition, Takaichi's victory is largely related to the Japanese’ fears of being left alone while the U.S. President Donald Trump is in power.